


Blood In the Water

by WeirdoWithWifi



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: M/M, No capes universe, an alternate universe, i got bored and thought what not, im not good at this tagging thing, theres violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-06
Updated: 2021-02-25
Packaged: 2021-03-08 06:20:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 22
Words: 35,965
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26847307
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WeirdoWithWifi/pseuds/WeirdoWithWifi
Summary: In my universe Bruce is a private detective in his spare time and the bat kids decide to track down a chain bomber when Tim and Damian get badly injured in one of the explosions.“So, do you got a safehouse nearby?” Jason asked. “You say ‘safe house’ like we’re those vigilantes from the comic books. I have a place, yes, but it’s not a ‘safe house’.” Tim answered. “Right, that’s completely normal.” Jason nodded. “Our family is far from normal. Dick is a circus orphan, you died at like age 13 and came back, I’m an insane genius, Dami can kill a person with on punch, and our father spends his time running around gotham solving cases for the GCPD. Yes, we’re totally a normal family.”
Relationships: Dick Grayson/Wally West, Jonathan Kent/Damian Wayne, Roy Harper/Jason Todd, Tim Drake & Dick Grayson & Jason Todd & Damian Wayne, Tim Drake/Kon-El | Conner Kent
Comments: 22
Kudos: 120





	1. Break The Rules

**Author's Note:**

> So I just want to explain my titles really quick, they’re songs that I think fit this chapter and the batfam. I’m not crazy or too weird, I promise. Anyway thanks for even considering reading this and enjoy I hope.

Damian didn’t know how he was feeling about school. The idea of it seemed awful, yet, he would get to see people and understand what life was supposed to be like. Plus, it would give him a chance out of the house and away from all the crazy that is his house right now. Apparently his mother, Thalia Al Gul, wasn’t ready to give him up quite yet and his father, THE Bruce Wayne, thought that he should be in a safer less “toxic” environment. Their arguing was getting annoying and very tiresome.   
“You ready Dami?” Dick Grayson, asked knocking on his door.   
Dick Grayson, oldest of the Wayne kids and the only one that seems to care about the families well being. Damian’s pretty sure know one would ever even know the other siblings existed if it weren’t for him. Even thought socializing is the worst thing in the world, in his opinion, Dick still managed to be the least annoying out of the three older siblings.  
Damian didn’t answer and instead threw open the door and pushed past a startled Dick.   
“Is little baby Damian ready for his first day of school like a normal person?” Jason Todd asked mockingly.   
“Go curl up and die Todd,” Damian shot back.   
“Did once, it didn’t stick.” Jason grabbed a waffle and flung himself on the couch.   
Jason Todd, second of the Wayne kids and the one who you go to if you want someone to… disappear. Jason is the only of the three that ever seem to argue with Bruce, at least in front of people. He also spent his time looking at gun magazines and just being angry, but if anyone even looked at his brothers wrong they would wind up in the hospital the next day.  
“Anyone seen Timmers yet?” Dick asked, walking into the kitchen and grabbing a waffle.  
“He’s probably still in his room trying to slowly kill himself.” Damian pet Alfred the Cat and ignored Dick’s offer of waffles.   
“Jason will you get on that? He doesn’t listen to any of us but you have a way of… convincing him.” Dick shouted to the other room and was met with a loud sigh.   
“Do I have a choice?” Jason asked back.   
“No.”   
With a loud groan, Jason walked up the stairs. There was a loud crash and some shouting, but a minute later Tim was downstairs, drinking his coffee. The only thing he seemed to eat or drink.   
Tim Drake, child prodigy and the most annoying of them all. He doesn’t talk much, or is seen much, but Damian always found a way to get into a fight with him and Jason always makes him socialize. Dick obviously feels a little useless when it comes to Tim, but Tim never smiles if he’s not around. Though he lacks social skills, you need anything done and he can get it done.   
“Shit!” Dick shouted, launching from his seat. “We’re going to be late!”

‘This is it’ Damian thought as he stood in front of the towering school, ‘this is where I die’.   
“Damian!” Dick shouted, stopping at the doors of the school and waitng for him. “Are you coming?”  
“Of course I am,” Damian snapped, walking past him and into Gotham High School, home of the Gotham Robins.   
It was… different, to say in the least. Children were all over the place, huddled together in groups and either whispering or shoving and laughing. The lockers were dark red and the walls were a light gray. There was a giant ‘R’ on the floor and there were hallways to the left, right, and in front of him with staircases leading up to another floor on the corners. There was an ‘about us’ on the wall to his left and an adult in a suit leaning against the wall watching all the kids, occasionally telling them to stop running or to keep their hands to themselves.   
“I’m supposed to take you to the office.” A monotone voice said behind him.   
Damian whirled around and found a very gothic girl in front of him. “Who are you?”   
“Does it matter?” She asked, walking down the left hallway.   
“It does when you managed to sneak up on me,” Damian said, following her.   
“My name’s Raven, and you’re obviously a Wayne,” she said, stopping in front of a door with ‘office’ paintend on it’s window in big blocky letters.   
“How do you know I’m a Wayne?” Damian asked, stopping in front of her.   
“All you Wayne’s look alike. It’s hard to tell you guys apart most of the time.” she turned and walked off, ending the conversation and Damian was left standing in the hall.   
With a deep breath, Damian opened the door and walked in.   
It looked just like the one you see in all the movies. The secretary was young and playing with her phone, the walls were white with dull garden paintings on them and inspirational, school pride posters. There was a trophy wall by the door and there was a good amount, but, in Damian’s opinion, it could be better.   
“Ah, you must be the new Wayne!” A balding old man with a bright smile but dead eyes walked out of the office in that back and towards Damian.   
“Damian.” Damian held out his hand and the old man shook it, seeming surprised to be shaking hands with a teenager.   
“Yes, yes, I’m Mr. Deckard, the principal. If you need anything, you can come to me. Marian will give you your schedule and you can get to class.” He gave an uneasy smile and rushed off back to his office.   
“I’m supposed to get a schedule.” Damian asked, walking up to the desk. Marian barely looked up from her as she handed him a slip of paper with his schedule on it.   
The kids whispered as he passed, but he didn’t care. No, not at all he didn’t care. But he did wish that school would hurry up and end.   
Finally, he made it to his first class. He opened the door to find it filled with kids already in there and their eyes seemed to drill holes into his soul.   
“Are you the new student?” A thin, teacher with a hooked nose asked him.   
“You should know if I wasn’t,” Damian answered.   
She rolled her eyes and turned back to the class. “Class, this is your new student, Damian Wayne.”  
“Another one?” Someone said from the back.   
“Are you adopted too?” Someone else asked.   
“I don’t see why that’s any of your business.” Damian snapped, finding an empty desk in the back.   
“Oh great.” The kid next to him muttered. 

“So, how was your first day?” Dick asked, driving everyone back up the hill to the manor after school had ended.   
In a word, it was horrible. He had the expectations to be as academically skilled as Tim, the teachers worried he’d be trouble like Jason, and everyone decided he should be happy and amazing like Dick. But, he wasn’t going to tell them that. That’d be whining, and people shouldn’t whine if they want to be taken seriously.   
“I don’t see the importance or worth of it,” Damian chose to say instead. “You’re just surrounding yourself in people lower than you and trying to keep peace with the arrogant teachers, it’s all overly irritating.”  
Jason snorted and Tim rolled his eyes.   
“I don’t think that’s what you’re supposed to get from school,” Dick said, frowing at the road.   
“By the way there’s a party tonight and I’m dragging you all there. Parties are always better when I get to see Timbo here having social anxiety and Dicky-boy having to fight off chics.” Jason brought up, texting on his phone. Damian would have to get one of those soon thought for what reason he wasn’t sure.   
“Right, I forgot that there was a party tonight,” Dick answered, pulling into the start of the driveway.   
“Aren’t the supers going to the party to?” Tim asked from the front.   
“Ugh, supers. There’s only one good person over there and it’s not even Wally, the rest are just annoying brats.” Jason groaned. “Some day they’re going to get what’s coming to them. They can only be the best for so long.”   
“Not all of them are horrible.” Dick protested.   
“Right, I assume you’re trying to defend you’re oh so wonderful boyfriend.” Jason teased, poking Dick’s shoulder from behind.   
“Well, yeah, Wally is amazing, but not just him. There are other people there too. Tim, you seemed to like Conner the last time you saw him.”  
“Eh, I guess, but he seemed, I don’t know,” Tim tried explaining, waving his hands around.  
“Not your type?” Dick guessed.   
“Sure, I mean, like I never talked to him,” Tim turned to the window, trying to avoid the conversation.   
“So… does that mean Roy’s gonna be there?” Dick raised an eyebrow and Jason gorwled next to Damian, who was feeling quite lost in this conversation.   
“Stay out of it, Dick,” Jason snarled.   
“Alright, alright, fine.” Dick briefly held his hands up in surrender before stopping in front of the house. “I hope Alfred made cookies.”


	2. Die Young

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They go to the party. Things get gay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided to post this for the sole reason I just had it sitting there and thought why not? Anyway, if you’re reading this then you liked my first chapter and thank you so much!!! That’s amazing!!!! Enjoy!!

Alfred had, in fact, not made cookies, but that wasn’t the thing worrying Damian at the moment. He had been forced to this party that was being held at this empty warhouse down by the harbor. It was in between both schools so it was, apparently, the best possible spot even though Damian could think of literally hundreds of better options.   
The music was loud and seemed to influence his heartbeat and the lights made everything hard to look at.   
“I’m going to go hide in the corner. Shout if you need me! Please don’t need me.” Tim turned to run, but Jason grabbed him and Damian and pulled the two into the giant crowd of people dancing.   
“Mom said you have to watch me if you wanted to go to this party, and are you sure this is a party?” A young voice said over the music causing Tim and Damian to look over at it’s source.   
The kid had startling blue eyes and was wearing a blue sweater with a red ‘s’ painted on it. His jeans had holes in the knees and his red sneakers looked one accident away from falling apart.   
Damain couldn’t stop staring, and he wasn’t sure what was happening to his heart, or breathing. He should be breathing, and his heart should at least be beating with the bass not five times faster.   
“Hot damn.” Tim breathed and Damian nodded before realising that Tim wasn’t talking about the short one, he was talking about the older one. The one with an undercut, sunglasses, a leather jacket, chains connected to his jeans and boots, with a giant s on his shirt like his brother.   
“This party just got significantly more interesting.” Damian agreed, just as the kid locked eyes with him. Those beautiful, bright blue eyes that were now just staring at him.   
“Go talk to him.” Tim nudged Damian and Damian shook his head.  
“Nope, you do it.” Damian nudged back.   
“Nope, should we go find Jason.?”   
“That does seem to be the only logical option.” Damian had to force his eyes away from the boy as he made a hasty retreat with Tim.   
“What happened to you two?” Jason asked, filling up two cups of punch.   
“Gay awakening.” Tim answered.   
“If you must call it that, yes.” Damian nodded.  
The song changed and Damian found himself in the middle of the dance floor with the rest of his brothers. He wasn’t exactly sure what his body was doing, but it felt right. Dick called it dancing, Damian called it a complete waste of time and an embarrasment, but for the moment the only thing that mattered was the music and the weird feeling of,,, not sad? in him.   
“I didn’t know you could dance!” Dick shouted over the music.   
“Neithe did I.” Damian shrugged and headed towards the punch bowl as the song ended.   
The boy was there, he was looking at the punch and deciding whether to drink it or not.   
“You shouldn’t drink that.” Damian said, startling the boy. All at once he felt a wave of anxiety crash into him and he wasn’t exactly sure what to do next.   
“Why?” The boy asked, putting down his red cup.   
“There’s alcohol in it,” Damian said, trying to keep the conversation going. In his head he was screaming, he hoped he wasn’t screaming out loud too.   
“How do you know?” He asked, shifting so that they were standing face to face now.  
“I can smell it.” Damian shrugged,   
“My Mom’s going to be so mad,” The boy muttered.   
“Why?” Damian asked, though he wasn’t sure why he should care, he doesn’t even know the boy’s name yet!  
“The first party I’ve ever been to and it’s got alcohol at it, plus my brother has had like four cups already.” He turned to the crowd as if searching for the missing part.   
“My name’s Damian Wayne,” Damian shot out, sticking his hand towards the boy in gretting.   
“Cool? I’m Johnathan Kent, but most people just call me Jon.” He tentatively shook Damian’s hand as if he wasn’t sure what to do with it. That’s one thing Damian noticed in his month with his father, no one expected kids to shake hands and when they do its usually at a formal event and you’re meeting some huge name.   
“You said this was your first party?” Damian asked, trying to disrupt the awkward silence that had settled over the two.   
“Yeah, Mom can be pretty protective sometimes. But, it was the only way Conner was going to get here and he promised it’d be safe.” He scanned the crowd again.   
“Do you want me to help you find your brother?” Damian asked, instantly regretting the words coming out of his mouth.   
“Yeah that might help.” The two waded into the crowd, pushing past dancing teens and keeping an eye out for Conner.   
“So how old are you?” Jon asked, pushing past a blonde girl talking with a redhead.   
“13.” Damian dodged a loose elbow.   
“I’m 10. Is this your first party?” Jon bumped into Damian and Damian had to hold back his immediate snarl.   
“Is this a rigged question?” Damian steadied Jon and they continued through the crowd.   
“No? I don’t see how it would. If it is your first then you’re just like me so it’s not like I’m going to make fun of you or anything.”  
“I don’t care what you think of me,” yes he did, he did care, a lot. This is the longest conversation he’d had with anyone other than his brothers, and they didn’t count. They were legally obligated to talk with him, though Tim seemed to be failing at that. “Yes, this is my first party without adults.”   
“You’ve been to others?”   
“My father hosted one and invited a lot of stuffy rich people the other day. It wasn’t very entertaining until Jason pushed Dick down the stairs, who knocked Drake into the table.” Damian stopped as they exited the crowd.   
“Do you wanna go to the roof? I bet we’ll find him better from up there.” Damian offered.   
“You’re not going to kill me right?” Jon asked and Damian felt offense.  
“If I were going to kill you, it wouldn’t be by defenestration and there wouldn’t be so many witnesses around.”   
“Thanks, that makes me feel tons better.” Jon smiled, sarcasm thick in his voice but still followed Damian towards the fire escape ladder to the roof.   
On the way up, Damian looked behind him and immediately spotted Dick making out with the redhead from before againt the corner by the dj booth, Jason getting into a fight by the door, and Tim watching the party from the side. Conner brought drinks over to Tim and Damian turned to finish his ascent.   
The cool air of Gotham felt nice compared to the stuffy heat at the party. Damian could still hear the music below and it left behind a slight ringing in his ears. The stars were out, which was odd because it was usually quite cloudy in Gotham, but today was one of those oddly perfect days.   
“It feels nice to get away from everyone, especially since nobody I know is down there.” Jon sat on the cool metal, roof and gazed at the sparkling harbor.  
Damian hummed in agreement and sat down next to him, fiddling with his jacket.   
Now that Damian had actually managed to talk to Jon, he found it wasn’t as terrifying as his nerves made it out to be. He was still as beautiful as before but at least now he seemed human.   
“How long have you been in Gotham?” Jon asked after a minute or two.   
“A month.” Damian answered, not sure where this was going.   
“Do you like it here?” Jon asked, taking Damian by surprise. This kid did not stop talking did he?  
“It’s passable, I’ve seen better.” He answered, not exactly lying but not telling the truth either.   
“Oh, I like it where I live, which is between Central City and here. I guess it could be because I’ve never seen anywhere else but Gotham is so exciting and interesting.” Jon shifted closer to him and Damian wasn’t exactly sure what his intentions were. Those eyes were shining with excitement and Damian had to look away.   
“Well that’s-”   
The world exploded in a bright light and suddenly Damian was falling.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave a comment on what you think, it really helps and I’d love to know what you think.


	3. Burn It Down

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Let’s see what happened....

He later learned what happened. That someone had set explosives in the corners of the warehouse and set them off at the same time as multiple other explosions. But at the moment, the only thing he was focused on was the bar he was holding on to that was giving him serious burns in his right and Jon, who was clutching on to his left like his life depended on it, which it did. Below them there was a raging fire and several screaming teenagers.   
“Jon!” He heard someone scream and Damian caught sight of Conner staring up at them with fear.   
“Shit! Damian!” Tim screamed letting go of Conner. He couldn’t see very well, but Tim was making his way over to him, and quickly too.   
“CONNER HELP ME!” Jon screamed, shifting. Damian had to bite back as scream as the movement tore open his hand and messed with his probably dislocated shoulder. Jon moved again, it was definitely dislocated.   
“Jon stop moving!” Damian barked.   
“We’re going to die!” Jon gasped, he was panicking and the smoke was making it hard to focus or breathe.   
Damian searched the crowd and lost sight of Tim, and didn’t see any of his brothers. That sent a spike of worry through his head, but the pain reminded him of his priorities.   
“Jon,” Damian started, coughing a little. “Jon look at me!”   
Jon’s blue eyes were full of fear as he met Damian’s green ones.   
“Calm down, we’re gong to be fine. I’m too perfect to die this way, and I’m not about to let you die becuase some idiot decided to blow up a bunch of kids,” Damian said as loud as he could over the panicked and pained screams below. “Just keep your eyes focused on me, don’t look down, that’s my job.”   
Jon nodded and Damian scanned the crowd again. By the side door he saw Jason and Dick herding people out. Conner was checking bodies and picking up the unconscious ones. There were still a lot of dead. There were a lot of people at the party tonight.   
“Damian!” Tim’s voice was above him. Damian looked up to find Tim standing above him on the bar, face tight with grim determination. “Hand me the kid!”   
Damian fought back a scream as his arm roared with pain when he lifted Jon up to Tim.   
Tim grabbed him, whispered some things to him, and set him on his way towards the edge of the roof.   
“Do you need help?’ He asked as soon as it seemd Jon was safe.   
“Never!” Damian tried to move, but his hand was stuck and the smoke was slowly draining his evergy. “But this may be a rare occasion when I am in need of some assistance.”   
Tim cracked a small smil and grabbed his hand. “Can you move it?” Damian shook his head. “This is going to hurt.” Then he ripped his hand off the bar and Damian let out a scream as white-hot pain raced up his arm. When he could think again, Tim was keeping him steady and they were standing on the bar   
“You with me Demon?” Tim asked and Damian nodded. “Great, follow the kid, I’m right behind you.”   
“I’m staying with you, I know you’re going to run off and do something stupid, and father will be displeased when you fail,” Damian protested.   
“Demon you need medical attention, go to your boyfriend!” Tim argued.   
“He’s not my boyfriend and I’m fine!” Damian shot back.   
“Damian for once do what I say. I’m just making sure no one is on the roof,” Tim doubled over coughing, and Damian caught him, letting out a muffled scream and blinking away the spots.  
“We’re both leaving. Your boyfriend and our brothers have got people-saving covered. Let’s go.” Damian started dragging Tim towards the impromptu exit. The warehouse shifted and the two had to dodge falling debris and keep steady on the shaky beam. “Hurry up Drake! I’m not dying because you’re slow!”   
The two made it to the edge and jumped just as as the roof collapsed.   
They spent the next few minutes coughing and trying to catch their breath.   
“Told you you’d die doing something stupid if I let you leave, Drake,” Damian said as soon as he got his breathing under control.   
“And I told you you needed medical attention, look at your hand.” Tim nodded at it and the pain came back.   
“Woah, woah stay with me Demon,” Tim put his hand on Damian and Damian swatted it away.   
“Where’s Damian?” A familiar voice from the street below asked.   
“Sounds like we need to get down there.” Tim’s voice sounded horrible and Damian was sure his did too. The two of them struggled to their feet and worked their way off the nearby roof and to the street.   
“Just hold on, we’ll get back home and Alfred will take care of it. I don’t want you at the hospital tonight,” Tim said, catching Damian on the way off the fire escape. Damian tried to hold back his noise of pain but he heard it and internally cursed at letting his weakness show.  
“Drake, where’s Jon?” Damian asked, remembering the person he promised would be safe.   
“I got him to his brother. Told him to go out to the roof next door than go into the crowd to find his brother.”   
“He’s ten, should we really just let him wander in a crowd?” Damian saw Dick and Jason by the car, but went back to searching the crowd.   
“Before you freak out, I looked over the crowd while we were still on the roof and Conner was walking Jon to the car. He’s fine Demon,” Tim sounded tired.   
“You should sleep more.”   
“Not gonna happen.”  
“Damian! Tim! Where the hell were you! Jesus Christ Damian are you okay?” Dick rushed over to them and looked them over.   
“Dislocated shoulder, second degree burns on my hand,” Damian listed off, both injuries giving off a steady throb. “What about you and Todd?”   
“Jason’s got some minor burns and I’m just fine, Tim what about you?” The pair turned to Tim who was pale and shaky.   
He opened his hands to reveal burns and also, blood. “I was close to the explosion.” He stumbled and Damian caught the flash of metal in his back and side.   
“Tim! Jason start the car!” Dick caught Tim and started dragging him to the car.   
“Damian call Alfred! Tell him to prepare the tiny hospital!” Jason shouted, jumping into the drivers seat as Dick and a barely conscious Tim slid into the back.   
“Dammit Drake!” Damina cursed, taking out his phone and doing his best to call Alfred without cursing.   
“Master Damian, I hope you will be arriving soon?” Alfred said after the first ring.   
“Yes Alfred, and prepare the tiny hospital for our arrival,” Damian said, biting back a hiss as the car went over a bump.   
“The tiny hospital?” Alfred asked, his voice hinting at worry.   
“I’m sure Grayson will inform you when everything has settled,” Damian paused for a second before deciding to just go for it. “Is father home?”   
“Not currently, but I will inform him that his children are in need of the tiny hospital. Who is in need of it?” Alfred asked and Damian could hear the clinking of medical supplies.   
“Drake is bleeding out from metal fragments on his back and right side, I have a dislocated left shoulder and second degree burns on my right hand, Jason has some light burns and Dick has some minor injuries.” Damian caught himself at the sharp turn and Tim and Damian yelped.   
“I’m hanging up now, tell Master Jason to drive quickly, but safely and that all of you are having a check-up no matter how insignificant you think your injuries are.” There was a click and Damian dropped the phone.   
“Todd don’t kill us but go faster, and Alred says that we’re all getting a checkup.” Damian relayed, turning to look back at Tim.   
He wasn’t looking too good, face sweaty, eyes hazy, shirt a deep red, skin pale and entire body shaky Damian hated seeing it on his brother. This was how your enemies are supposed to look after you defeat them in battle, not your brother after some fool decides to blow up children out for a night of fun. He felt deep rage fill his entire being and if he ever found who did this…   
“He’s going to be alright short-stack,” Todd said, dragging Damian’s attention back to the road.   
“Who says I was worried? I couldn’t care less,” Damian growled and Jason just chuckled. “What?”  
“Nothing.”   
The rest of the ride, the four of them sat in tense silence, every once in a while either Damian or, more often than not, Tim coughed.   
They pulled in to the basement to find Alfred ready and waiting with two hospital beds ready.   
Damian wasn’t exactly sure if Jason was completely stopped before Dick had Tim out of the car and on the hospital bed.   
“You want help?’ Jason asked as Damian stared down at the handle.   
Jason didn’t wait for an answer and reached across to open the door. “I didn’t ask for your help Todd.”  
“I know, now go sit on that bed. I’m going to get you guys less burned clothes.”   
“Stay out of my room Todd!” He shouted uselessly as he climbed out of the car. 

Damian stared at a sleeping Tim next to him. There had been six, three-inch pieces and two, one-inch pieces in his back and a long four-inch in his side. He had second degree burns on his hand and back, two fractured ribs, a broken wrist and was on heavy pain meds.   
Damian had several cuts and a couple of small metal pieces but it was mainly the ruined flesh on his right hand and a badly dislocated shoulder. He didn’t regret it, he heard later from Jason that Jon had come away from the experience without a scratch. He had gone to relieve Tim of his worries about Conner but Damian didn’t care much for the older brother.   
“Hey,” the bed shifted and Damian acknowledged Dick’s presence with a slight nod. “He’s going to be alright.”   
“That stupid idiot rescued me, when he was bleeding out he rescued me and Jon and I had to stop him from looking for others. We barely got out with our lives and he didn’t tell anyone, anyone at all that he was bleeding out!” Damian ranted, feeling better after four hours of just wanting to scream at him to not be an idiot.   
“Yeah, he needs to get better at that, but, would you have done any different?” Dick asked and Damian didn’t answer. He couldn’t because that’s exactly what he would’ve done. It’s what he in fact tried to do until Tim started coughing.   
“Bruce is back, do you want to see him?” Dick offered after a moment of silence.   
“If he cares enough about our health, he would be down here. If he really wants to see us he should come down here. I’m not leaving here to see a father that took four hours to see his wounded children after a traumatic event,” Damian answered coldly. He didn’t really want to see his father, but at the same time he needed it like he had needed that hug Dick gave him a couple hours ago when Tim wasn’t waking up and worry started to tear at his nerves. “When will he wake up?”   
“Alfred says he should be up in the morning, but you and him are on bedrest for the next week,” Dick answered and Damian heard the sound of combat boots on metal staircase.   
“How’re you doing short-stack?” Jason asked.  
“I told you not to call me that Todd.”  
“Feeling better then, that’s good,” Jason stood by the foot of the bed and the three of them just stared, willing Tim to wake up and be better.   
“I told him that he should sleep more, I take it back,” Damian muttered.   
“Have you seen Bruce yet?” Jason asked, not wanting to let Damian know that he was heard.   
“Jason don’t start this, not now,” Dick pleaded, sounding tired.   
“He should’ve been here earlier Dick, and the only thing he had to say to himself was that there were a lot of bombings and he had to get to them before ‘the crime scene could be tampered with’. The man should be worried about his son that is on a hospital bed and had nine pieces of metal sticking out of him. That should’ve been priority one, not some stupid crime scene.” Jason ranted.   
“I know, but right now I don’t want to fight about it. I’m not letting this one slide, but I’m going to wait until all of my brothers are okay first,” Dick snapped back.   
“Wait, there was more than one?” Damian asked. “Where?”   
“The one at the warehouse, one at a small hospital, a church, and the central school,” Jason listed off. “Over all casualties were close to a hundred and there are three times that wounded.”   
“When I catch who did this…”   
“You’re not going to.”   
The three brothers whirled around to find Bruce standing at the foot of the stairs.   
“What do you mean we’re not?” Jason growled, much like he usually does around Bruce.   
“We should be able to help, father!” Damian snapped, unable to believe what he was hearing. If anyone could find out who did this it was the five of them, not the pathetic excuse for cops in the GCPD.   
“You’re not getting on this case. That’s final. It’s too dangerous,” Bruce walked over to his desk and started typing on one of the many computers he had set up there.   
Dick put a hand on Jason’s shoulder and whispered something into his ear. Jason’s shoulders relaxed and he focused back on Tim.   
“This is ridiculous!” Damian raged.   
“Dami, it’s okay, we don’t have to be on this case. He can work on it.” Dick winked at him and it took Damian a second to realize what he meant.   
“Fine,” he hughed. “But I am not staying on this bed for a week. I shall be back to daily life in two days.”   
“That’s not how the- you know what, nevermind,” Dick sighed. “Go to sleep Dami.”   
“I will do what I want Grayson,” Damian said as he layed on the bed. He fell asleep to the sound of Bruce’s typing and Tim’s breathing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just want to thank you guys again for reading this. I think I’m going to update once or twice a week depending on how my days go. Again please comment and tell me what you think it makes me so happy!!!


	4. The Kids Aren’t Alright

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys meet on the rooftop to start their investigation.

Three weeks later he was back at school. His left arm was still in a sling, and he had strict instructions from Alfred to not move it or really use it at all for another three weeks. He didn’t want to cross Alfred, Alfred was scary.  
“Damian! I didn’t know you go here!” A familiar voice shouted from behind Damian as he was opening his locker.   
“Jon? You go here?” Damian asked as he turned around to see Jon in the same outfit as the night of the party.   
“Yeah, the bomb wrecked the only school we had so all the kids are going here and using the classes on the second story that aren’t being used,” Jon explained. “Oh my gosh what happened to your arm are you okay?” Jon’s voice immediately went from cheerful to worried in less than a second.   
“I’m fine. I can see that a lot of people had worse,” Damian answered, trying not to think of his brother who was awake but still couldn’t function with his ribs and wrist. The burns and metal injuries had healed, but he had a constant ringing in his right ear. “How are you doing?”   
“Oh, I’m fine. Conner was a bit roughed up but you kept me from the worst of it, you know, made sure I didn’t fall to my doom,” He cast a worried look at his shoulder again. “Was that my fault?”   
“No, you don’t weigh enough to cause any significant damage to me,” Damian knew he was lying, but he was just a kid and he already seemed stressed enough as it was.   
“I should probably let you get to class,” Jon stepped back away from Damian.   
“Yes, you should.” 

School seemed to suck less with Jon there. Now he had a friend to talk to during lunch and less peeole seemed to stare and whisper at him now that they were busy judging the other school.   
“How was school today Damian?’ Dick asked as they got in the car.  
“It was passable.”  
“That’s it?’ Dick asked after a moment of silence.  
“If I wanted to share my personal buisness with you Grayson, I would do so without having to be interrogated,” Damian snapped, looking out the window.   
“Alright, whatever kiddo,” Dick answered.   
“I’m not a kid!” Damian argued, turning to glare at the back of Dick’s head.   
“Said every kid ever,” Dick shot back.   
“You’re barely an adult, and even then that’s in age. You act more childish than a person of your age should.”   
The rest of the ride was silent. 

That night they met up on the roof.   
“You sure you guys wanna do this?” Tim asked, sitting against the thick chimney, laptop open. He had bandages on his chest under a plain shirt and a cast on his broken wrist.   
“Absolutely, you two are still in bandages, I wanna hurt this fucker,” Jason growled and Dick gave a small nod.   
“Alright,” Tim sighed. “Here’s what I dug up while I was under house arrest.”  
He clicked on a few buttons, swiped the screen to a small circle on his right and a glowing blue projection of Gotham with bombings highlighted in red shot out of it.   
“Impressive,” Damian admitted.   
Tim smiled in acknowledgemnet then turned serious. “There was a series of explosions here at the docks, Gotham Critical Center, Central School, and a West Baptist Church,” Tim pointed at each mark as he named them. “There was a party of 103 teenagers from Central School and Gotham High with casualties at 52. There were 61 people at Gotham Critical Center, with casualties 43. There were only four staff at Central School, 0 casualties; and, 29 wedding guests at West Baptist with casualties of 15. In total there was total of 110 civillians. Method of destruction was the same in all four locations. Four classic homemade bombs set on the largest support beams with simple transmitter that allowed the murderer or murderers to set them off all at the same time. Evidence shows that no one suspicious entered any of these buildings before the bombings occured. This leads the police to believe that the murderer found a way to convince people attending these events or working their shifts to plant the bombs themselves.” Tim took a deep, steadying breath before looking up from the screen. “There has been no connections made to discover the motive behind the attack…”  
“What do you think Tim?” Dick asked, noticing along with the rest of them that Tim had hesitated before letting the sentence die.  
“Well they were all attacks on what society seems to hold most important right?” Tim started, his voice carefully neutral with a slight tremor. “Religion, Health, Education, Entertainment, and they are all our most vulnerable and most heartbreaking tragedies. Newlyweds, out injured, and… and the youth.”   
“So whoever did this was targeting everyone?” Dick asked.   
“Not exactly,” Tim started. “I think they were just trying to cause chaos.”  
“Well they got their wish,” Jason grumbled.   
“Do we have any suspects?” Damian asked, not allowing himself to react to the death toll.   
“One of the custodians said he heard laughing before the explosion, and the others had too much noise to properly know what was going on.”  
“Laughing?” Dick asked, crossing his arms.   
“Yeah, doesn’t make sense right? Not unless some of the others were laughing at a joke, but the witness said it sounded distorted.” Tim shook his head and focused back on his screen. “I’ve got more on the history of each building and all the people who owned or worked there but none of them add up. I’m going to check through them again tonight but I don’t think the psychopath that did this cared much about the history or the people in it.”  
Damian studied the map.   
“Drake, whats the building right here?” Damian poked   
“That’s WayneTech Enterprises Storage Facility, it’s where we keep all our important documents and products,” Tim answered almost immediately.   
“Could you light it up like the others?”   
Tim looked confused but after a few clicks was red too.   
“Now show us the above view.”  
Tim obliged and the red dots looked like… a smile.   
“Tim,” Dick started quickly. “Was there any suspicious activity around the storage facility?”  
“Gimme a second.”  
The three waited anxiously while Tim’s free hand flew over the keyboard.   
The map changed to a security video of a guy wearing the WayneTech uniform fail the security check and get taken to a holding cell to the side while the bomb was disposed of.   
“Well,” Dick started and didn’t seem to know how to finish. “Guess it seems like we know where the fifth target was.   
“That would definitely cause chaos,” Jason nodded.   
“But who could’ve done this?” Dick asked.   
“There does seem to be a disturbing amount of psychos in Gotham, it could be any of them,” Tim added, taking down the footage and shooting up the top ten dangeers to Gotham.   
“Those are all people Father put away, correct?” Damian asked, frowning at the names.   
“Yes, so they all have motive, but they’re all in captivity right now and chaos explosions don’t fit any of their MO’s,” Tim explained.   
The four of them sat in thougt. Dick’s watch beeped and they all started in surprise.   
“Sorry guys, but we got school and we gotta be up in five hours. We need to call it a night,” Dick said and Damian groaned. Tim laughed while Jason rolled his eyes.   
“Just think, Drake, you’re going to be busy doing homework for weeks while we get to sleep and investigate,” Damian said, tapping Tim’s foot as he passed.   
“Yeah whatever, Demon.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys thank you for reading this far!!! You guys are the absolute best and I hope you enjoyed this chapter more than I liked writing it!!! Please comment on what you think, even if it’s just a thumbs up. Thank You!!!! More on the way, I promise.


	5. Oh No!!!

Even thought his mind was still racing as Damian neared his room, he was asleep before his head hit the pillow. Sleep was for the weak, but Damian was fine being weak this one time.  
His moment of weakness was a bad idea. He was immediately sucked into a nightmare. One that, if asked, he never actually had.  
He was standing in the yard of his family’s mansion. The Al Gul manion. Everything was quiet, not even the birds were daring to make a sound.  
There was a shout of alarm and Damian found himself dodging bullets and cutting down enemies, his mother and grandfather at his side. An enemy gang had found their hideout and now they had to fight their way through dozens of armed men to find an exit. He heard more than saw his grandfather go down but had little time to react before his mother scooped him up and started running towards the back exit.  
“No! Wait!” He shouted, looking behind him to see his grandfather bleeding and dying before he turned the corner and only heard the finishing shot.  
His mother threw him into the back seat of their car and quickly started the engine, wasting no time getting out of there.  
The house behind him lit up in flames and Damian ducked as bullets bounced off the glass.  
“Mother where are we going? It’s cowardly to run from a fight!” Damian shouted but she didn’t answer.  
Damian hesitantly poked his head over the seat and watched as the house exploded, sending ash and black, heavy smoke high into the sky.  
That’s when Damian woke up, when he always woke up. Right after the biggest failure of his life.  
“Dami you awake yet?” Dick was asking outside his door.  
“Of course I am Grayson! Now go bother Drake!” Damian snapped, shaking off the leftover fear and adrenaline from the dream before. 

“Grayson you wouldn’t know if father has bugged this car, would you?” Damian asked as they were driving to school.  
“No,” Dick replied, looking at Damian through the mirror. “Why do you ask?”  
“We should find out who was inviting people to the party, see if they’re the missing link to all this. A party on the night of a bombing with both targeted schools seems a bit, convienient.”  
“Do you know who was spreading the word?” Dick asked Jason. “I mean, it does seem a bit odd that they would throw a huge party, with spiked drinks on a school night.”  
“I’ll check it out, see what I can find.” Jason nodded, going back to ignoring everyone through music. 

“Hey Damian!” Jon smiled, sitting down next to Damian on the grass at lunch. The original lunch hall was too small for everyone to use and instead of shifting schedules, they decided everyone would just eat outside.  
“Hello Kent,” Damian nodded in greeting, searching through the histories of each of the three custodians at Jon’s school.  
“Whatchya looking at?” Jon asked, trying to peer over his shoulder. “Why are you looking into Mr. Julian?”  
“I’m doing something important. Something you wouldn’t know anything about,” Damian snapped out of habit.  
“That wasn’t nice Damian,” Jon chided.  
“Sorry,” He grumbled.  
“Now, for that, you’re going to tell me why you’re looking into Poor Man Julian, and then you’re going to let me help,” Jon crossed his arms and dared Damian to challenge him with those startling blue eyes.  
“Tt, fine. You’ll probably be more annoying than helpful,” Damian started, but caught himself at Jon’s glare intensity. “As long as I don’t get in trouble with your mother.”  
“Thank you Damian!” Jon flung his arms around Damian and Damian fought the urge to fling him off in a very violent manner, instead just tensed.  
“Jon,” He started slowly.  
“Yes?” Jon asked, still not aware of the trembling Damian.  
“Remove your arms from my person before I have to do it myself,” Damian growled out.  
“Oh, sorry,” Jon sheepishly pulled his hands back but still hovered close by. Whatever, he could handle close. Touching was out of the question.  
“I am investigating who is behind the bombings so I can exact my revenge on the monster myself,” Damian explained. “Your, ‘Poor Man’ Julian was one of the three people there at the explosion and since it originated in his area of the school I’m investigating everything about him to see if anything stands out.”  
“Well his son went missing three weeks before the incident. He had been acting really sad and a bit jumpy, I can see why you might think he’s suspicious,” Jon added, staring into the sky in thought.  
“So he’s missing his son? That is his only family, correct?” Damian asked, sending a quick text to Tim.  
“Yeah, pretty tragic,” Jon layed back on the grass, lost in thought.  
“Kent?” Damian asked after a minute, looking over at Jon.  
“What Damian?”  
“Are you.. alright?” Damian asked hesitantly, not quite used to his silence. Ever since he met Jon it was non-stop chattering about the most useless topics.  
“Yeah,” Jon paused. “I’m just thinking about how happy I’m going to feel when I help in putting the culprit behind bars.  
“Oh, yeah, we’re arresting him,” Damian looked away, brushing away all his murder fantasies. Some of them were pretty gruesome.  
“Wait, we are arresting him, right?” Jon asked, propping himself up on his elbows and staring at Damian.  
“You could put it that way,” Damian answered slowly.  
“Oh my gosh you were going to kill him?” Jon gasped. “Damian, that’s illegal!”  
“So is this!” Damian shouted back. “That man killed 110 innocent civillians all for the sake of causing chaos!”  
“I know! But, it doesn’t seem right.” Jon seemed less sure towards the end of his sentence and looked at his tattered jeans.  
“It’s going to be a while before we find him, we can decide what to do with him later,” Damian grumbled, pulling out his phone to see if Tim had texted back yet.  
“Yeah,” Jon muttered. 

“Todd did you find anything?” Damian asked as soon as he was in the car.  
“Be patient, shorty,” Jason grunted from the front seat.  
“Let’s wait till we can talk this over with Tim, Dami,” Dick said, starting the car.  
“I need a name Todd, it’ll help give Drake more time to find a connection,” Damian growled.  
“How would the name do that much to the case?” Jason asked, still not answering the question, which angered Damian to no end.  
“I have a theory and I would like Drake to check it out before we waist precious time chasing a lead that does not go anywhere,” Damian answered. “Now, the name.”  
“Fine, it’s David Hawthorne, he’s a senior. I’m surprised you don’t know him Dickie-Bird,” Jason nudged Dick who just rolled his eyes at Jason.  
Damian sent a quick text to Tim but didn’t wait for his reply before texting Jon everything they had found out about the case so far. He did promise to work on this with him.  
“So Dami, what’s your theory?” Dick asked after a few moments of silence.  
“It was something Johnathan Kent mentioned, about one of the custodian’s,” Damian explained, not willing to share more. If this was a dead lead, he didn’t want to look ridiculous.  
“Kent, I know that name,” Dick’s eyes scrunched up. “Oh! Is that the younger brother of Conner and your new friend?”  
“Why do I feel like I’m going to regret answering that question?” Damian asked, raising an eyebrow at his crazy brother.  
“Did you hear that Jason,” Dick smiled. “Damian’s got a real, human, friend.”  
“I never thought this day would come,” Jason teased.  
“I can make friends whenever I want to!” Damian snapped. “I just, don’t see the point in spending some of my precious time with someone who is just going to annoy me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys thanks for reading this an please please please PLEASE comment and tell me what you think so far. It mean the WORLD to me.


	6. The Fighter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I’m not good at summaries.

“How was school today?” Alfred asked as the three of them walked through the door.   
“It was great, Alfred,” Dick smiled, throwing his bag into the living room next to a concentrating Tim. Tim jumped, shutting his computer with a yelp.   
“Don’t do that dick,” Tim grumbled, opening it up again and closing his tabs.   
“Whatchya looking at?” Jason asked, leaning over the couch to peer over his shoulder, trying to catch the names of the few remaining tabs he left open.   
“I’ll tell you later,” Tim waved Jason away and Jason headed up to his room.  
“And how was school for you, Master Damian?” Alfred asked, noticing Damian hadn’t moved from his spot inside the doorway.   
“It was fine, Alfred,” Damian answered, knowing he could never get away with lying to Alfred but not wanting to get into it at the moment. “Is father home?”   
“He is down at the station going through the suspect list, he should be back before dinner,” Alfred answered.   
Damian nodded and sat down next to Tim.   
“Did you find anything interesting about the thing I sent you?” Damian asked, turning on the TV.   
“A lot actually. You’re theory was right. We have a lot to talk about tonight,” Tim answered. “How did you know about that? I had to visit the man’s house in order to find enough evidence that that you’re theory was accurate and not some wild guess. You’ve been at school the entire time, when did you have time to check it out?”   
“I had a source mention something interesting and I used my superior brain to connect dots faster than you,” Damian shrugged.   
“In other words, that kid you met at the party told you about him,” Tim continued typing on his computer. “Which means that he snuck up on you and found out what you were up to and so you had to fill him in. He told you about the Person Of Interst and you told me.”   
“No,” Damian snapped defensively. “I let him give me information that I already knew, because I am better than you, Drake.”  
“Yeah, whatever Demon, get your homework done,” Tim waved him away and Damian growled at him.   
“If it weren’t for Alfred…” Damian snarled.   
“What would you do Demon? Tell me, what would you do?” Tim challenged.   
Damian lunged. 

“I find it highly inappropriate that you two decided to fight while in your condition,” Alfred chided.  
“He started it,” Damian snapped, poking at his multiple bruises to test their pain level.   
“How very mature of you Master Damian,” Alred finished patching the two of them up and stood in front of the two. “You will both be confined to your rooms until I see a handwritten apology letter from the both of you. You have to list the other’s good traits and how what you did was wrong. Only then are you allowed out. And I am taking your technology away too.”  
“But-” Tim started.  
“No ‘but’s Master Timothy. You know the rules, an this is the third time this month you broke them. Do I make myself clear?”   
“Yes Alfred,” the two ansered, hanging their heads and making their way to their rooms.   
“Nice going Demon, now we can’t meet up later tonight,” Tim snapped.   
“You started it, and don’t worry your pretty little head over it. We’ll sneak out after dark,” Damian answered, gladly shutting the door in Tim’s face. 

“Goodnight Alfred!” Damian heard Dick shout and soft footsteps passed his door.   
Damian took this as his chance and slowly slipped out the window, climbing up the drain pipe on the side of the house till he got to the roof.   
“Took you long enoug,” Tim smiled at him,   
“Boys, if you start arguing, Alred will catch us and I do not want this to get shut down before it’s really started,” Dick hissed.   
Damian bit back his retort and and settled on just glaring at Tim.   
“Damian said he had you check something out for him?” Jason asked, stepping away from the door and towards Tim.   
“Yeah, and it’s a good thing too,” Tim started, a light dancing in his eyes as he opened his computer and excitedly pulled up information. “At each bomb site there was one person who had a missing loved one. The Janitor at the school was missing his son, one of the wedding guests her brother, Hawthorne was missing his datemate, and a nurse who’s father went missing.”  
“This is Gotham, what’s so strange about them?” Jason asked and Dick shot him a displeased look.   
“None of them were reported and they all went missing around the same time,” Tim answered. He brought up the images of the missing people under the possible suspects.   
“How do you know this?” Dick asked, eyes wide.   
Tim just grinned. “I have my ways.”   
“When did you have time to find all this? I thought Alfred took your wifi away?” Dick asked.   
Tim shrugged. “He forgot about data and hotspots. Now, are we here to talk about how I get information or are we here to talk about who the culprit is?”   
“Yeah, Grayson, stay on task,” Damian snapped.   
“What do you think happened Tim?” Dick asked, ignoring Damian.   
“I think they were taken and used to convince these people to set the bombs,” Tim answered.   
“That makes sense, but, have you found any evidence for it?” Damian asked, shifting so he could look at the faces better.   
“The janitor guy, I went to his house and looked around, fed his cat, looked for evidence, I found a picture of his son tied to a chair looking beat all to hell. On his lap was the date and time the bombings took place and telling them to ‘give Gothem a good laugh’,” Tim answered, replacing the image of the son’s senior photo with that of the hostage image.   
“What is it with this guy and laughter?” Jason mumbled, voicing what everyone was thinking,   
“We can’t kill him,” Damian said after a moment of silence.   
“What?” Jason asked, as if surprised by Damian’s words.   
“I owe someone a favor and their request was that he doesn’t die,” Damian answered, looking at the roof at the foot of his brothers.   
“Are you kidding me? This guy is insane! We’re going to hand him to the police?” Jason protested.   
“You think I want to keep him alive Todd?” Damian snapped back. “He killed children, I don’t want to do this, but he has to be arrested,” Damian lowered his voice. “Accidents might happen while he’s serving his sentence though.”   
“Fine,” Jason grumbled.   
“Tim, get some sleep tonight, but find out what else you can about the origins of that photo to see if we can find where the hostages are being held,” Dick’ eyes never left the image of the boy and he only moved when Tim turned off his projecotor.   
“We should get back down before Alfred gets suspicious,” Damian said, already working his way towards the roof. He looked at his arm, temporarily removed from the sling, and sighed before swinging off the edge and climbing through his window

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey sorry this was so late, I was really busy and got this out as quick as I could. Anyway thanks for reading and please please please comment. It pleases me and keeps me writing.


	7. Migraine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We get to look at this whole thing from Tim’s POV as he finally gets to go back to school.

Tim was not having a great month. His days spent in house arrest were draining and mind-numbingly boring to the point where he welcomed homework. He was irritated that Alfred was keeping him longer while he sent Damian to school and his aching body didn’t help at all. As if his luck wasn’t bad enough, his right ear had been damaged in the explosion and was now emitting a constant ring that grinded his nerves and was probably driving him to insanity.   
But today was different. Today he’d finally be able to go back to school and escape the cold walls of the manor.   
Damian was sending him constant glares across the table as the four of them ate in silence, Dick trying ineffectualy to start a conversation before giving up and staring at his cereal.   
The way to school was silent to and Tim wondered if something had gone wrong while he was up last night digging into all the personal backgrounds of the suspects and the missing indivuduals, as well was areas that matched the conditions of the hostage photo. He had found nothing and that seriously pissed him off.   
Finally they got to the school and Tim gratefully stepped out of the crushing silence of the car, only to be met with the loud voices of thousands of teens packed into one big building. He didn’t exactly miss this but it was a pleasant change from the still silence of the empty house.   
“Back where you belong, nerd,” Damian sneered when he saw Tim’s small smile.   
“Whatever Demon,” Tim walked away, not quite filled with enough energy to actually engage with him.   
Tim tried to ignore the stares and whispers as he passed, how everyone looked at his wrapped wrist and tired eyes, but it was getting increasingly harder. Especially when one of his least favorite people started making rude and belittling comments about him for the entire hallway to hear.   
Tim barely even realised where he was going until he ran straight into what seemed to be a wall of muscle with a red and yellow ‘s’ on thier shirt.   
“Oh shit!” Tim cursed, holding his arm and chest and biting back a hiss of pain.   
“Oh sorry, are you okay?” A familiar voice asked and Tim found himself freezing at the sight of a leather jacket.   
“Um,” was all he could say as he slowly straightened to look at the teen in the eye.   
“Oh, hey Tim,” He said, smiling at him. “Haven’t seen you in a while.”   
“I was busy recovering and Alfred wouldn’t let me leave till I could breathe properly,” Tim explained, tyring to kill the butterflies in his stomach before he released them in front of the entire school.   
“Yeah, you got hit pretty hard,” Conner nodded, eyes staring over his shoulder as he slipped back into the memory.   
“Were you or your brother hurt?” Tim asked, pulling Conner back to the present.   
“No,” he answered. “Guess that’s all thanks to you and your brother. My mom grounded us both for years when we got home ‘til her and dad calmed down enough to drop it to a month.”   
“That’s good,” Tim’s eyes widened. “The fact that you’re okay, not that you got grounded.” He rushed out.   
Conner chuckled. “Honeslty, that’s probably the best case scenario.”   
“Hey Conner-” The bell signaling the start of school rang, cutting Tim off.   
“I’ll talk to you later Tim!” Conner shouted as he was swept up in the sea of bodies, hastily moving to their next class.   
Tim stood in the middle of the emptying hallway and contemplated skipping. He knew all this anyway, and he still had a case he needed to work on. Plus, there was no way that he was going to be able to hear the teacher over the ringing and his racing thoughts. Alfred won’t let him out of the house until he wrote that letter to the Demon, he was not looking forward to that, so he wouldn’t be able to go out and investigate. Granted, he could take the information from Bruce’s computer later but he was following a different lead.   
But, if he stayed, he could talk to Conner and make friends. He could also get some more information from Conner about who invited the other school and maybe more about the hostage and the bomber.   
The clashing thoughts were starting to form a migraine and Tim shook his head, heading to first period. He’ll decided by second period. Maybe. 

He ended up staying the entire day, and ended up with Conner’s number. Apparently, Damian’s little friend wasn’t the best at secrets and told Conner that he and Damian were solving a case. Conner was worried about his little brother and so now Tim had his own personal Watson.   
While he was glad he decided not to skip out on school, it had given him a migraine and a newfound hate for it as thanks. Now, he remembered why he took every opportunity he could to disappear from class.   
“Hey, Dick, could we take a detour?” Tim asked, not wanting to be locked away quite yet.   
“Where?” Dick asked, eyeing him briefly as he pulled out of the school parking lot.   
“The warehouse,” Tim answered. “There’s something I need to check and I don’t exactly trust Bruce to put all his information on a computer that I can access really easily.”   
“Makes sense,” Dick nodded and turned the way of Gotham Harbour.   
“Care to explain what you need to check Timbo?” Jason asked, leaning in between the seats.   
“You said that Hawthorne was the one that invited everyone right?” Tim started and Jason nodded. “Well, there are no Hawthorne’s in the Super School , so who invited everyone there? And if there was another person inviting guests, we may have someone who isn’t dead or in critical condition.”   
“How are you going to find out about who invited the kids from the Super School?” Jason asked.   
“I have someone on that, but Jason, do you know anyone that might know?” Tim asked.   
“Well, it sounds like you have it under control Timmers,” Jason leaned back and Tim rolled his eyes, going back to the screen.   
“Any luck on placing that picture yet Tim?” Dick asked as the the crowded shops and appartments spaced out into warehouses and abondoned buildings that should’ve been condemned ages ago.   
“Not yet, I’m sure I’m close to something though,” Tim answered, remembering another one of his annoyances that he had temporarily forgotten in favor of trying to silence his thoughts.   
“I’m sure you’ll find it Timmy.”   
The rest of the ride was in silence until Dick pulled to a stop in front of the warehouse.   
The dark windows seemed to suck in all extra light from the car and the door gave Tim the feeling of a gaping mouth ready to swallow the group whole. As soon as the four stepped into the warehouse, they were assaulted by the smell of burnt and decaying flesh. The fallen pieces of roof must’ve trapped kids under was also casting broken shadows over the ashy ground covered in debris and white chalk. Tim pushed away the memory of blinding pain and the screams of the dying as he examined the charred walls and melted pieces of jewlery and party supplies. The stacks of crates that had lined the walls were gone and the floor was littered with slivers of charred wood and broken glass from the bottles of alcohol that had only made the fire worse.   
Tim looked at the other three as Dick turned on his flashlight, showing that all of them shared the same face of grim determination and efforts to keep themselves together and not give in to the trauma of the night.   
Shaking himself again, Tim made his way over to where he had been standing when the bombs went off. The beam he had hit had dark splotches of his blood from where he leaned on it when trying to find Conner. The blast had hit him from the right and given his damage and the marks arond the corner he knew that a smallish bomb had been placed head-level in the corner, the same as the other foour corners. The thick metal walls still had damage done to it but was luckily still intact. If the bomb had been too much bigger all four corners would have blown out and the building would have dropped on top of them leaving them trapped beneath and with no hope of survival.   
Tim looked up at the roof, way above with gaping holes.   
“I need to get up there!” Tim called to his brothers as they made their own rounds around the creepy building.   
“I know a way up that wasn’t destroyed,” Damian said, leading him over to a metal ladder on the side wall.   
“Is this how you got up to the roof?” Tim asked, climbing up after Damian.   
“Yeah, why?” Damian answered, pulling himself up on to a beam, the beam Tim had found him hanging off of. Damian didn’t seem to mind, not even sparing the spot a glance as he moved further down the beam to make room for Tim.   
Tim stretched out his arm and tried to push away the dull pain from using it before it was completely healed.   
He looked around the beams and noticed some more destroyed than others.   
“What was the purpose of coming up here?” Damian asked as Tim moved to the next beam over.   
“Just checking something,” Tim muttered, bending down and using his camera to look at the wrecked beam across from him. There were scorch marks similar to the ones in the corner down below. “Did you see anyone else when you came up here?”   
“No, there was no one. That was the entire point of coming up here,” Damian crouched next to him, holding his bandaged arm close to his chest.  
“There was no way this was the work of a single person,” Tim muttered, putting his phone away and making his way back to the ground.   
“What makes you say that?”   
“Someone placed bombs up on the roof and thr four corners without being noticed with limited time before they all went off. Pluce, the roof didn’t crush us. Someone obviously messed up.” Tim answered, jumping to the ground.   
“What’d you find Tim?” Dick asked, walking over to the two.   
“Evidence there wasn’t just one bomber, and I need you guys to find as many ways to the roof you can,” Tim answered, pushing past him and narrowly avoiding tripping over a thin arm sticking out from under piece of roof.   
After five minutes of searching they found one other ladder across from the one Damian used.   
“We need to get back to the mansion,” Dick said, glancing at his phone just as a text hit the other three brothers.   
Dinner is in the fridge. From Alfred.   
“Have we really been here that long?” Jason asked, making his way to the exit.   
“The sun is going down, so, yes,” Tim answered, stealing the front seat.   
“I hope that was useful, Drake,” Damian grumbled from the back. “I think we may have broken Alfred’s ‘you are to stay in your rooms’ order.”   
“Let’s just hope he isn’t too mad,” Tim sighed, starting up his search again for the hostage

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you again for reading this it makes me so happy to see comments and kudos. I’ll try to update faster but the election has been leaving me super stressed. Have a nice life! Till next time!


	8. Dance Monkey

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Damian’s POV. There’s another party that the boys must attend along with their plus ones. Enter Selina Kyle.

Alfred was, in fact, mad, but that’s not what Damian was worried about. His father was home, and he was fixing them with a glare he only gives criminals he’s trying to get into confessing.   
“Where were you?” He basically growled.   
“School has been really stressful given the circumstances so the four of us decided to blow off steam and we grabbed some snacks and drove around for a while. We got distracted by the docks cause its’ the only quiet place in all of Gotham and quiet is so very relaxing for out stressed nerves,” Tim answered, lying easily. Damian found himself believing him, and he knew what they were doing.   
“If I check the GPS on the car and your phones that’s what I’m going to see?” Bruce asked, trying not to show how much he actually believed them.   
Damian felt his anxiety spike, checking his phone knowing that it would show that they were in fact little liars and were doing the one thing he told them not to do.   
“Yup,” Tim answered, taking out his phone and handing it to Bruce.   
Bruce looked over the four of them and Damian made a conscious effort to not look suspicious.   
Finally, Bruce grunted, handed his phone back to Tim , and stood from his spot at the table.   
“Tomorrow there’s a charity ball that all four of you are going to attend. You may invite one person to join you. Call me if you need anything,” and then he disappeared.   
Damian let out a breath he hadn’t realised he’d been holding and Dick visibly relaxed next to him.   
“Your ability to lie scares me Timbo,” Jason smiled, ruffling his hair.   
Tim shrugged. “I’ve had a lot of practice.”   
Damian had no idea what that meant, but he had something else to worry about. The charity ball tomorrow that he really didn’t want to go to. It was just going to be full of overly-dressed people trying to get his father’s attention and pretending to care about him. But, it might be better with the plus one that he had mentioned. Though, the only person who he could even consider worth his time might not like that kind of thing.   
Dick grinned and quickly whipped out his phone, bringing it up to his ear, “Hey Wally, you wanna get dressed up really fancy and make fun of rich people tomorrow?”   
Jason shook his head as he quickly texted someone, smiling a few moments later.   
“Are we the only ones without a boyfriend on speed dial?” Tim whispered to Damian, staring at the pair with wide eyes.   
“It appears so,” Damian whispered back. “They look ridiculous.”   
“That they do,” Tim shook his head and the two of them headed towards their rooms. 

“It’s so simple,” Damian muttered to himself, staring at Jon from across the room. “Just say ‘hey would like to go to a dumb charity ball with me?’ No that sounds stupid.”   
“Are you going to move?” A familiar voice asked behind him. He turned and saw the goth girl from the first day staring at him with bored and slightly annoyed eyes.   
“When I want to,” He answered and she rolled her eyes.   
“Look, just ask him like a normal person, now move so I can actually eat,” she said, pushing him and Damian remembered what Alfred told him about choosing his battles. He decided this one would lead to his death and moved towards Jon.   
“Hey Damian!” Jon smiled as Damian reached the table.   
“Hello,” he answered, sliding into the seat in front of Jon.   
“Are you okay?” Jon asked, taking a drink from his water bottle and fixing those sparkling blue eyes on him.   
“Why?” Damian said, avoiding the question as he built up his courage. It shouldn’t be this hard.  
“You seem, more tense than usual?” Jon answered, looking over him before settling on his face.   
“I’m not tense,” Damian snapped then cleared his throat. “But, I was wondering if you would possibly like to come with me to a charity ball that my father is hosting later tonight?” Nailed it.   
“Yeah, sure. As long as my Mom says it’s okay. Also, am I going to have to buy a suit?” Jon nodded and Damian felt a rush of relief.   
“I can provide you a suit as long as you are coming,” Damian answered, forgetting that most people didn’t have three pairs of suits just sitting in their closet for emergencies.   
“I can give you a maybe, usually people give their guests a little more warning time.” Jon teased and Damian felt himself tense slightly.   
“I didn’t know till last night and you know Alfred took all my stuff,” Damian defended.   
“I’m just messing with you Damian, I’m sure my Mom would let me! I mean, it gets me out of the house and teaches me how to be respectable.” He mimed putting on a tie and donned a mock serious expression and Damian found himself smiling slightly at his antics.   
“Ha! I got you to smile!” Jon smiled, pointing at Damian and Damian quickly wiped it off his face, quickly looking around to make sure no one noticed.   
“I did no such thing!” He whispered back.   
“I saw it Damian, you can’t lie to me!” Jon smiled wider.   
“Could you at least keep your voice down?” Damian asked, trying not to draw too much attention to himself.   
“Are you scared of people knowing you’re happy?” Jon whispered, leaning across the table.   
“Tt, I”m not scared,” Damian rolled his eyes and leaned back slightly, trying to relax his posture yet remain ready for anything.   
“Then you wont mind if I,” Jon stood up. “Damian Wayne I made you smile!” He shouted.   
“Jon!” Damian shouted, feeling himself as he tensed up and pulled Jon down, looking around the lunch hall. Nothing was happening.   
“See Damian, no one cares. You’re allowed to smile,” Jon smiled at him, bent over by Damian’s tanned hand fisted in his shirt.   
“Never do that again,” He mumbled, letting Jon go and looking down at his food which had grown cold and didn’t resemble food in the slightest.   
“We’ll see,” Jon smirked, frowning down at his food. 

Damian stared at himself in the mirror, preparing himself for the growing crowd down below. His hair was somewhat tamed, his suit wrinkless, red tie to show he was part of the Wayne family, and his mood sour. Wally had arrived as soon as school was over and Dick had become insufferable. At least Jason was sensible enough to know to leave the cute-romancey things til the Roy and him were alone. It was nice to see them so happy though.   
“Damian, does this look right?” Jon asked, his suit buttoned unevenly and his tie just knotted at his neck. Damian suppressed a laugh but couldn’t hold back the small smile at seeing his ridiculous outfit.   
“Not quite,” Damian answered, walking over and pointing out the button he missed.   
“Um, could you help me with the tie?” Jon asked sheepishly, looking down at it with confusion.   
“Here,” Damian reached out and untied it and fixed it, making sure to keep his hands off him.   
“Thanks, um,” Jon shifted on his feet, keeping his eyes on the floor. “Promise me you’ll stay by my side? And keep me from making a fool of myself?”   
“Trust me,” Damian started, putting what he thinks is a comforting hand on Jon’s shoulder. “Dick’s going to be more embarrasing then you will.”   
“That’s a relief,” Jon looked up at him and, while Damian could still read nervousness in his bright blue eyes, there was also excitement. “When does it start?”   
“Uh,” Damian looked at his phone. “Five minutes ago. But don’t worry, Father probably isn’t down there yet anyway.”   
“Are you always late to your own party?” Jon asked as they made their way towards the door.   
“You’ll see why,” Damian opened the door and immediately the two of them could hear echoes of the party.   
As they turned down the corner and stood at the top of the stairs, they were met with a sea of color. Jon tensed beside him and Damian made the decision to grab his hand. As if remebering that he wasn’t alone, Jon relaxed again and shot Damian a nervous smile.   
“We can go back if you want and hide in my room, I’m sure Alfred has seen me already,” Damian suggested.   
“No, I’m fine,” He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Let’s do this.”   
Damian nodded, not wanting to pretend to know what Jon can and can’t handle, and the two made thier way to the party.   
“Damian! You actually came down!” Dick smiled, making his way over to the two. He and Wally were holding glasses of champagne that his father was definitely confiscate when he got down here.   
“Of course, father made attendance mandatory,” Damian answered, looking for the rest of his siblings.   
“Yeah, but I’m pretty sure that doesn’t mean a thing to any of us,” Dick chuckled.   
“Except maybe Drake,” Damian checked on Jon and saw that he was tense, but slowly getting the feel of things.   
“Timbo is definitely a weird one,” someone called Dick’s name and the pair walked towards the voice, leavint Jon and Damian alone.   
“So what do you even do at these things?” Jon asked, looking around at the mob of people they had yet to enter.   
“You find your spot on the sidelines, look at the crowd, and judge people,” Damian replied, slowly making his way to the refreshment table. “You might even get horribly unlucky and have to charm you rway out of a conversation, but that’s only when people are trying to get to Bruce. You can pretty much say anything and they wont hear you.”   
“Huh… that’s… interesting,” Jon said, dodging Jason as he chased after a cackling Roy.   
“Watch where you’re going Todd!” Damian yelled, pulling Jon more towards the sea of bodies.   
“Oh hello there,” a lady with too much make-up and a very loud dress smiled and crouched down to Damian’s eye level.   
“Here we go,” Damian muttered.   
“How are you doing today cutie?” She asked, voice penetrating and filled with fake interest.   
“I would like to use a dull spoon to gouge out my eyes and then have my friend here eat them,” Damian sneered.   
“”That’s nice. Say, do you know where your father is?” She asked, standing to full height and looking around.   
“Trying to enjoy the final moments of his life before he meets you,” Damian snapped, taking some delight in her shocked face before moving away from her.   
“Wow, you were being completely serious about the ‘you can say whatever and they won’t hear you’ thing weren’t you?” Jon said, staring at Damian with shock and awe as they finally reached the table.   
“Last time I was at one of these, Dick created a challenge to see what the most disturbing thing we could say was without being heard. Drake won,” Damian informed him, grabbing a sparkling champagne glass and looking for something less alcoholic for Jon.   
“You’re allowed to drink those?” Jon aksed, shocked as Damian took a sip from the glass.   
“No,” Damian replied, finding some sparkling cider to give to Jon.   
“My Mom doesn’t let me, says I’m not old enough,” Jon said, taking the drink.   
“You aren’t old enough. You probably wont even like it,” Damian took another sip as Tim came by.   
“Demon,” Tim greeted.   
“Drake,” Damian nodded. “Where’s your plus one?”   
“He’s waiting for me by the stairs, didn’t want to get lost in the crowd,” Tim pointed across the room and Damian saw the form of Conner leaning against the wall.   
“Pity, I would’ve loved to see the two of you gazing lovingly into each other’s eyes,” Damian said sarcastically.   
“Coming from the one holding hands with his plus one,” Tim pointed out and Damian immediately released his grip on Jon’s hand.  
“Hello there children,” a honeyed voice said and the two brothers turned to find an attractive women in her early thirties standing before them. Both Tim and Damian let out a small groan. “How are you two enjoying the party?”  
“I’m waiting for life’s slow crawl to come to an end for everyone here,” Damian answered.   
“I have a chronic illness that leaves me unable to feel anything but aroused by the slightest mention of ketchup and it will end me in 24 hours,” Tim answered and Damian wanted to curse him for having a better disturbing sentence.   
“Well, that’s… certainly interesting. Both of you should probably get some help,” She answered and the two stared at her in shock. Jon started laughing and the woman in the slim black dress jsut stared at the two. “Let me guess, none of that is true.”   
“Well, mine isn’t, I don’t know about Damian,” Tim managed to say.   
“You actually heard us?” Damian finally forced out.   
“Well, yeah, you did say things right? Why wouldn’t I listen?” She smiled and the two brothers turned to each other to make sure they were actually eharing what was being said.   
“What do you want to know about father?” Damian turned back to the woman, willing to give her real information for actually listening to them instead of treating them like pets.   
“Why do you assume I’m here for your father?” She asked and Damian felt his suspicions rise. There was no way someone like this could actually be attending a high class party.   
“Because everyone is?” Tim questioned.   
“I am here for the food. Never say no to free things,” to make her point she grabbed a shrimp off a passerby’s plate and stuck it in her mouth.   
“Who are you?” Damian asked, wonder in his voice.   
“Selina Kyle, nice to meet you,” she stuck out her hand and Damian and Tim shook her hand. “And, who is this?”   
“This is my plus one, Jonathan Kent,” Damian introduced just as Jon pulled himself together.   
“Hi Ms. Kyle!” Jon smiled and waved.   
“Plus one eh?” Selina smirked and Damian felt his cheeks heat slightly.   
“Yes, he is a friend,” Damian said, putting emphasis on the friend part.   
Jon gasped and Damian turned to see his blue eyes shinning and his hands over his gaping mouth.   
“What?” Damian snapped.   
“You just called me your friend,” Jon whispered.   
“I meant to say friendly acquaintance,” Damian covered.   
“You are adorable, Damian right?” Selina smiled, pulling his attention back to her.   
“Yes.”   
“And, you’re Tim,” she said, not an ounce of confusion in her voice.   
“Yes ma’am.”   
“You can tell us apart too?” Damian whispered but she heard it and her smile grew.   
“Of course I can, Damian’s got tanned skin, Tim is short with long hair, Jason has the white bangs, and Dick is the oldest.”   
“You can’t be real, you must be a spy,” Damian said. “Who sent you, was it my mother?”   
“The food sent me here, I listen to no one,” she answered dramatically. “Well, it’s been fun kiddos but I really should be on my way,” and with that, Selina Kyle disappeared into the crowd.   
“Did that really just happen?” Tim muttered, the surprised look never having left his face.   
“I don’t really know,” Damian turned to Jon who was smiling like an idiot. “Did that really just happen?”   
“Yes. Yes it did.”  
“Are you boys having fun?” The two whirled and saw Bruce smiling at them.   
“When did you get here?” Tim spluttered.   
“A few minutes ago, she’s something isn’t she?” Bruce stared at the spot she was last seen at and Damian had a feeling this wouldn’t be that last he saw of Selina Kyle but at the moment the small group got another member.   
“Hey,” Conner smiled, sliding up next to Tim.   
“Oh shit, sorry Conner. I got caught up with something,” Tim waved and Damian rolled his eyes and turned to Jon.   
“That usually doesn’t happen,” Damian explained.   
“I had a feeling,” Jon nodded.   
Bruce cleared his throat and Damian shot him a glance. Bruce nodded at the glass in his hand.   
“I can drink this just fine you know, I’m not a child,” Damian protested, setting the glass down.   
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Bruce smiled at him and walked away. 

The rest of the party went as normal as it could be. Near the end, Jason and Roy punched an old white man because he had said something homophobic and the two were just itching to hit something and Bruce had to issue quick apologies and promises to pay for medical bills that would come from the man’s broken nose. Dick got dared by Tim to do a backflip off the stair railing. He did the backflip just fine, but Wally wasn’t paying attention and the two went crashing into the crowd. Tim thought he would be funny and shut off the lights off at the end and the Wayne’s took this as their chance to disappear without a trace, leaving Alfred to usher everyone out of the mansion.   
“Is this what happens all the time?” Jon asked, bouncing on Damian’s bed, tie loose and the top buttons undone.  
“Not this exactly, but in a sense, yes,” Damian nodded, taking his tie and suit jacket off.   
There was a knock at the door and the boys turned to find Alred peeking his head in. “You two gentlemen should get some sleep if you want to wake up early enough to get to school tomorrow.”   
“Yes Alfred,” they said and Alfred closed the door leaving the two to fall asleep on their own.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys sorry this took so long and really sorry that this isn’t very good. I thought I should just get this out there. I’ve said this before and I’m going to say it till I can no longer say things, please please please please PLEASE leave a comment on what you think it means the world to me.


	9. The Nights

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys can’t sleep

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey I would like to say thanks to a_pansexual_person for giving me the lovely idea on how to let Wally in on the investigation. Please enjoy this and I’m sorry it’s so short

Jason layed awake staring at his ceiling. Roy was next to him, sleeping soundly, and while the sound of his breathing was soothing, Jason just couldn’t get himself to relax long enough to actually close his eyes and do the sleeping thing successfully. He heard soft footsteps pass his door and continue to the roof door and perked up. He might as well see who was up at this hour too.   
Slowly, without disturbing Roy too much, he slipped out of the bed and into the hallway. He caught sight of a black robe as someone turned the corner ahead of him and he made his way over.   
Jason never like how quiet the mansion was, especially at night. Coming from the streets he was used to the constant noise of Gotham and the silence left him jittery and anxious. It’s always silent before something bad happened and while he knew that doesn’t quite apply here it was still hard to get out of the habit.   
Jason reached for the cool metal handle of the roof door and briefly hesitated. What if there was someone up there that he didn’t want to deal with? What if it was Bruce and he started asking questions, or worse, Alfred?   
Shaking his head, he grabbed the handle and pulled, immediately regretting not bringing a jacket or something as the cold air rushed over his bare arms and legs. Shorts and a T-shirt was not a smart choice of clothing on a cold October night.   
Hesitating only for a moment, he stepped out onto the cold roof and walked up to the spot him and his brother’s hang out on after a tough day.   
“Dick?” He asked as he spotted a slim, but muscled figure standing on the roof and gazing skyward.   
Dick hummed as acknowledgment and Jason walked over to stand by him.   
“What’re you doing up here?” Jason asked, trying to see what he was looking at. The only thing that direction were the stars.   
“I needed to see the stars,” Dick muttered and Jason looked at him, really looked at him. Dick’s eyes were shinning and there were dried tear tracks on his face. Oh, Jason thought. It’s one of these nights.   
“You doing okay there Dickie?” Jason asked softly and Dick sighed.   
“Not now, but, just give me a second,” He answered and Jason nodded, stepping away not so far that Dick felt alone, but enough so that Dick had space.   
Ever since Dick’s parents had died, whenever he had nightmares about that night he would come up here and gaze at the stars. Said that that was something he did at the circus and the three of them would make their own constellations and everything.   
Something was bothering Jason though and he couldn’t quite put his finger on it.   
He had originally come up here because he heard someone walking in the hallway, and when he came out he saw, a black robe. Jason looked at Dick’s robe. It was blue.   
“Hey, Dick, I’m gonna be back in a second okay?” He said softly, waiting for the subtle nod before heading off across other areas on the roof.   
A section of flash of light caught his eye and he headed over to the hidden corner near the back of the house.   
“Tim? Is that you? You’re up here too?” Jason asked when he saw the dim glow of the computer screen.   
“Yes? Who else is up here?” He answered and Jason frowned at what he saw. No black robe.   
“Apparently someone else, have you seen anyone wearing a black robe?” Jason asked, looking around the roof again.   
“No? But doesn’t Dami have a black robe?” Tim turned back to his screen and Jason wondered what he could possibly be doing on that at this hour.   
“Is he out here too?” Jason sighed. “Damian! You out here too?”  
“So what if I am Todd!” He heard someone shout back.   
“Alright, we’re meeting by Dick!” Jason called and Tim sighed before putting away his computer and standing up.   
“We should take classes on sleepin,” Jason muttered.   
“Among other things,” Tim added and they made thier way to the front.   
Damian stopped a few feet away from Dick and was staring at him suspiciously.   
“You better Dickie?” Jason asked softly and Dick sniffed, wiped his face, and nodded.   
“Yeah, yeah I’m better,” Dick sighed and turned to face the rest of them. “Are you ALL out here?”   
“Apparently, yes,” Jason looked over his brothers with amusement and annoyance.   
“Why are you up Damian?” Dick asked, turning to the small one.   
Damian obviously didn’t want to answer, he had grown tense and his eyes were darting around like he needed a way out. “I’m not going to sleep next to someone I don’t trust,” he said simply.   
Ah, that made sense. From what Jason had heard from Dick’s rumor group, Damian’s other half of the family wasn’t exactly kind to children. Or anyone for that matter. No wonder Damian seemed relieved about a room with a lock on it to himself.   
“Are any of us actually going to sleep tonight?” Jason sighed, looking around at the sad group of traumatised individuals. “We all got a cute boy in our bed tonight and none of us are taking advantage of it. What is wrong with us?”   
“I do not intend to do any of what your implying to Jon!” Damian growled.   
“Why are you so upset about this? You obviously like him,” Dick asked.   
“He’s ten, that’s too young for anyone to know what they’re feeling now I demand you stop with the teasing,” Damian snapped and Dick’s mouth dropped into a shocked ‘o’.   
“So I managed to narrow down some options on who took the picture,” Tim said, drawing the conversation away from the dangerous topic that would end in one of the brothers getting thrown from the roof.   
“What did you find Tim?” Jason asked, pushing Dick slightly to focus him.  
“Well, obviously this guy is no professional and he lacks the basic skill level most teenagers do so he’s obviously on the older side. He bought just a basic camera that you can find at a Walmart and they used expired printer ink to print it. The dirt floor suggests somewhere by the dock and it the lighting ins’t natural it came from the camera,” Tim rambled off and Jason was… impressed. How did Tim know so much about photography?   
“So, by the docs then?” Dick perked up, looking excited. “Can we find him?”   
Tim hesitated.   
“Tim?” Jason asked and Tim sat down, opened his laptop and started typing away. A few seconds later a report obviously written by Bruce popped up in front of them.   
Two bodies found in Gotham Harbor. One confirmed to be Julian Davis Jr., son of bombing victim Julian Davis the janitor, and Mark Taylor, brother of bombing victim Sarah Taylor from the wedding. Both had several major injuries and rope burn around their hands and face.   
Dick let out sad noise and Jason growled.   
“How long have you known?” Jason snarled at Tim.   
“I just found out now,” Tim answered, voice carefully calm.   
“What’s the point of camera angles if the kid we’re searching for is already dead!” Jason shouted and Tim flinched back.   
“When were you going to tell us?” Dick asked quietly and it pissed Jason off. How could they be acting calm about this, a kid was dead and floating in the harbor.   
“Probably tomorrow, when there was no one else in the house and we weren’t exhausted,” Tim said, tense and ready for something.   
“Babe? Are you up here?” The four of them spun quickly to find Wally staring at them with wide eyes. “What are you doing?”   
“Hey, Wally. What’re you doing up here?” Dick smiled uncomfortably and motioned for Tim to shut off the computer, which he did very quikly.   
“Looking for you, what are you doing up here?” Wally crossed his arms and gave him a look.   
“Uh, nothing?” He tried and Jason couldn’t believe what he was hearing. There was no way Dick was this bad at lying. He was Bruce’s original son and was apprently quite the trouble maker. How could he be this bad?  
“Right, and I’m the real billionaire here, what’s going on?” Wally narrowed his eyes and fixed the boys with his own knock-off version of the pissed Bruce glare.   
“I’ll, tell you later?” Dick asked and sent a very strong ‘help me’ look at Jason.   
“You’re on your own Dickibird,” Jason laughed and Dick’s face fell.   
“You better tell me later,” Wally turned and walked back inside.   
“Can I…” Dick gestrued vaguely in the direction that Wally just left.   
“I mean, it’s not like we’re keeping it a secret from them, we’re just keeping it a secret from Bruce,” Tim answered, going back to typing on his computer.   
Dick nodded and raced after Wally.   
“Anybody else going to just appear up here?” Jason asked loudly and Damian sent him a glare.   
“With how loudly your speaking, soon everyone will be up here, Todd,” he rolled his eyes then went to sit on the edge.   
“Are any of us going to sleep tonight?” Jason asked, looking around at the small group of weirdoes.   
“Dick’s going to sleep on the couch,” Tim added and Jason smiled at the mental image.   
“Well, do whatever you want but I’m going back inside. It’s cold out here,” and with that, Jason left the two on the roof and hoped they’d both be alive in the morning.


	10. Mind Is A Prison

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey sorry for the late update. Stupid is going down but here’s this while you wait. Sorry again and I love you all!!!

Tim was, in a word, tired. Very tired if someone wanted him to be specific. He had been having a hard time sleeping recently, as usual, and the pressure of finding the rest of the people before the ended up on the front page for taking a swim.   
“You get any sleep last night Tim?” Dick asked when Tim stumbled down into the kitchen. Was it always this bright in the morning?  
“What time is it?” Tim mumbled, reaching for the coffee maker, he really should convince Alfred to put one of these in his room, then he wouldn’t have to go downstairs and break up his work streak when his cup was empty.   
“It’s three in the afternoon. How long have you been up in your room?” Dick asked, standing in between tim and the coffee pot.   
“Dick, I should warn you, remember what happened to the last person that stood between me and my coffee?” Tim almost growled out.   
“You can get you coffee as soon as you listen to this,” Dick stared at him and motioned for him to sit down. Tim briefly considered putting him in the hospital like he had Jason, but realised Alfred wouldn’t be happy and sat down. “There was a breakout last night, someone released all the prisoners and killed the gaurds.”   
“Okay? What’s that have to do with us? It sounds more like a Bruce problem,” Tim asked, honestly too tired to care about anything at the moment.   
“All of the escapees are the ones that Bruce put in prison, and guess what the security footage showed,”   
“Are you going to tell me or am I going to look it up when I go back upstairs?” Tim yawned.   
“It showed men with animal masks raiding the prisoners, only taking a select few and shooting everyone else,” Dick explained and Tim felt a slight flash of interest at that.   
“Animal masks?” Tim muttered, fighting the sleep wave as it knocked into him.   
“Yup, now get your coffee and sleep tonight, you’re at your parents Friday,” Dick patted his head and Tim shot up, energized by those words alone.   
“Friday? They’re coming back Friday?” Tim stood and looked at his phone, of course there weren’t any texts from his parents, but there was a reminder on his phone on there. He only had five days to prepare for their arrival not including today. “Fuck.”   
“Watch the language Timbo, there are children present,” Dick nodded behind Tim and he turned.   
There was Damian, staring at him, with a butterknife in his hand.   
Tim let out an inhuman screech and jumped back, landing wrong on the table, flipping it, and sending him and everything on it crashing to the floor. His ankle gave a spark of pain and started throbbing and Tim could hear Jason laughing and something heavy fall to the ground.   
“Tt, pathetic,” Damian said from the other side of the table.   
“Can I have that coffee now?” Tim grumbled, getting to his feet and wincing from a sharp stab of pain from his what looked like to be a sprained ankle.   
“You okay there Tim?” Dick asked, handing Tim the steaming mug.   
Tim just took a sip of the bitter brown drink and glared at Jason who was laughing breathlessly on the ground.   
“Master Tim, I hear a crash, are you okay?” Alfred poked his head in and Tim smiled at him.   
“I’ll be fine Alfred, thank you,” Tim carefully made his way back to his room. 

Tim startled at the sound of a crash. It wasn’t a big crash, probably Damian running into something breakable while he was practicing. He almost went back to his work when alarm bells started ringing in his head. Confused, Tim tried to find the source of the alarm, stopping when his eyes landed on his phone. He checked the time and leapt from the bed and down the hall towards Dick’s room.   
“Dick, Dick wake up,” Tim whispered, closing the bedroom door behind him.   
Dick groaned from his bed, which is fair given it was three in the morning. Not even Bruce stayed up this long.   
“What is it?” Dick’s eyes opened groggily and he blinked at Tim.   
“I think there’s someone in the house,” Tim whispered and the confession sent adrenaline and fear through his body with a small shiver.   
Dick’s eyes widened and he jumped out of bed and grabbed Tim’s shoulders. “Tim, get Jason and Damian and start heading to the cave.”   
“But what about you?” Tim asked, putting his shaky hand on Dick’s.   
“Don’t worry about me okay?” Dick smiled. “Now, go get your brothers and make sure they go to the cave. When you get in there, you lock it down till I get down there, don’t let anybody in.”   
“A-alright,” Tim left and when he looked back, Dick sent him another reassuring smile and nodded at him.   
Tim stood in front of Jason’s and took a deep breath. The last time he had snuck up on Jason it had not been good. He almost lost his neck.   
With trembling, pale hands he grabbed the handle and walked into the room. Tim saw Jason sleeping peacefully on his bed across the room.   
“Jason,” Tim whispered, not moving another step into the room. He briefly considered turning on the light but he didn’t want to shout to whoever was in the house that they were awake and moving.   
“Jason please wake up,” Tim searched the room and found a sock by his foot. After a brief mind war, Tim picked up the sock and threw it at Jason’s head. With this, Jason startled and bolted upright, wild eyes searching the room.   
“What are you doing in here?” Jason snarled.   
Tim put a finger to his lips and glanced down the hall. He didn’t hear Dick and hoped he was okay. “There’s someone in the house and we need to get to the cave.”   
Jason sat up and reached for the knife by his bed. “Where’s golden boy?”   
“I don’t know, but we need to get Damian and head to the cave.” Tim, knowing Jason only listened to himself, went and headed towards the second most dangerous task.   
“Damian get up,” Tim whispered, not bothering to waste time hesitating this time.   
Damian was not in his bed. It was obvious that he had just been there, his sheets were warm, but his sword was missing and Tim sighed.   
“Where’s the brat?” Jason asked from the door and Tim shrugged.   
“We have to find him, before he kills whoever’s here,” Tim turned and head past Jason.  
“So much for get to the cave,” Jason muttered.   
“Did you really think that was going to happen with both you and Damian in the house?” Tim looked in Bruce’s room and found the window broken and glass pieces on his bed. “Oh no.”   
“What happened?” Jason stood by Tim and cursed as well.   
Tim walked up to the bed and found the sheets still warm, and some of the glass tainted red.   
“Tim watch out!” Jason shouted and Tim jumped backwards as a clown masked man leaped from behind the curtain with a shiny knife.   
“Jason find Damian!” Tim shouted, moving out of the way of the next attack.   
“You sure?”   
Tim spun to glare at him. “Just do it!”   
Jason turned and ran, and Tim realized his mistake as he felt the blade catch his arm.   
Tim turned and duke the next swipe.   
The man said nothing as he tackled Tim to the ground and Tim used the momentum to throw him into the wall, stumbling to his feet and racing into the hall.   
There was the sounds of fighting all through the house now as Tim raced away from his attacker. He couldn’t go to the cave now, they would know where it was and then what was the point of trying to hide there. But he had to figure out something fast. His ankle injury from this morning was making it hard to moe very fast and sleep deprivation was dragging his limbs down. Briefly, Tim cursed his inability to make healthy life choices and turned into his room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please tell me what you think in the comments. They mean the world to me. Thank you.


	11. Castle On the Hill

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dick finds a place to take care of his hurt bros. Babe takes care of her sad bois.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey!!! Sorry for taking so long to update but I’m back and I’ve got a bunch of stuff planned for this. I got a lot of chapters written out and I should be able to update either every day or every other day for a while. For those of you that are still reading: THANK YOU SO MUCHHH!!!! I’m so glad you like this so much to continue reading even through my wonky schedule. You guys are the best. Enjoy.

Dick’s hands were tight on the wheel as he sped out of the back entrance to Wayne manor. He had Jason bleeding out in the backseat from a bullet wound in his shoulder, and Tim covered in multiple injuries to the point where he seemed to be just one pain ball. Damian was only bruised and he himself had gotten sliced on his arm and side. Bruce was nowhere to be found and they couldn’t stop to grab Alfred on the way out.   
But other than that things were going just fine.   
“Where are we going? Drake needs a hospital,” Damian asked from the front seat.   
“I know, I know Damian,” Dick rolled his shoulders trying to relieve some of the tension from his shoulders. “But we don’t know who’s after us so we can’t risk going anywhere we’ll be recognized.”  
“So, what are we going to do?” Damian pretended that he didn’t care, but Dick could hear the worry and fear in his voice.   
“Don’t worry, I got it handled,” Dick smiled and racked his brain for anyone he could go to that he could trust.   
The rest of the ride was silent, the only pause was when he called ahead to tell her he was coming with multiple injured people. 

“What did you do this time?” Barbara Gordon, daughter of the GCPD commissioner and Dick’s ex, asked as he pulled into her driveway.   
“Well, someone broke into our house and tried to kill us, Bruce is missing, so is Alfred, and I got two heavily wounded children in my back seat.” Dick rushed out in one breath, pulling Jason out of the backseat and handed him to Barbara while he took Tim.   
“Why am I not surprised?” She answered, walking passed Damian as he held the door open for them. She set Jason down on the couch and her dad opened the emergency first aid kit.   
“Can you save them?” He asked quietly, watching Damian for any signs of injury he just ‘forgot’ to mention.   
“They’ll be fine, though you four really need to be more careful, especially Tim,” Barbara shook her head as she went to work on Tim while Commissioner Gordon finished Jason.   
“Where’s your father?” He asked, looking over Barbara’s shoulder.  
“No clue, we’ll find him though,” Dick took a deep breath and shoved his shaking hands in his pockets.   
“Grayson, are you okay?” Damian poked his hand and looked up at him.  
“Yeah, I’m fine Dami. Go get some sleep, we have a lot of work to do tomorrow,” Dick smiled at him. Damian squinted at him suspiciously, but followed Commissioner Gordon to a spare room.   
“You are starting to get worked up, calm down,” Barbara chided, pausing in her stitching to look over at him. “It’s gonna be okay.”   
“I know, I know, I know,” Dick took a deep breath, pulling his hands through his hair. “I’m just worried is all.”   
“I know, but you also need to keep calm. You can’t help them if you’re freaking out all the time,” Barbara bandaged Tim’s arm and moved on to his leg, wincing at the sight of it.   
“I’m not freaking out all the time,” Dick huffed, walking over to look at Jason.   
“Mhm, then what do you call this?” Barbara touched the foot and Tim’s face pulled into a grimace.   
“Shock?” Dick smiled slightly.   
“Possibly, hey hold Tim down, he’s not going to like this,” Barbara set her hand on the very broken leg.   
“Never thought I’d hear that in my life,” Dick sighed, placing one arm across his chest and one hand on his thigh.   
“Ready?” Barbara whispered and Dick took a deep, steadying breath.   
“Go.”   
Barbara slid the bone back in place with a sickening pop and Tim jerked awake with a shout of pain.   
Jason twitched next to him and Commissioner Gordon burst into the room looking for the threat. I guess the Wayne brother’s presence left him kind of jumpy.   
“Hey Tim, Tim it’s okay. We just got one more to do and then you’re good okay?” Dick placed a hand on Tim’s forehead as reflexive tears tracked down his face. “Tim can you hear me buddy?”   
“Where are we? How’s Jason?” Tim forced through clenched teeth.   
“Jason’s fine, and we’re at the Gordon’s,” Dick answered.   
“I think… I need some Advil … and coffee,” Tim smiled. “Coffee fixes everything.”   
“Okay, here we go,” Barbara announced before grabbing Tim’s ankle and shoving it back in place.   
Tim screeched, face filled with pain as he tried to jerk away.   
“Tim, we’re almost done okay?” Dick handed Barbara bandages and supports as she wrapped up the leg.   
“Yeah, yeah. I’m sure we’re going to be fine,” Tim dropped his head against the back of the couch, breath coming in quick pants and face scrunched in pain. “This is what happens when you stand between me and the coffee, we get raided by lunatics.”   
Dick smiled at that, petting Tim’s hair. “Guess I learned my lesson then.”  
“Hey Dick?” Tim started, staring at the ceiling.   
“Wassup Timmy?’   
“Who’s gonna deal with WE while Bruce is gone? And who could have passed our security system? This doesn’t make any sense?” Tim’s mind was racing a mile a minute, Dick could see it in the way he was looking but not seeing.   
“Hey Tim, look at me,” it took a minute of urging, but Tim pulled out of his mind and looked at Dick. “I got it handled, don’t worry about it.”   
“Your hands are shaking, your pupils have dilated slightly, your breath isn’t as steady as it should be, you are terrified,” Tim listed off. “You’re not super great at this business stuff and I believe you are suffering anxiety due to shock.”   
Barbara laughed and shook her head. “He’s right, but does he know that he keeps trying to work himself into a panic to distract himself from the pain?”  
“Tim, I know it’s hard for you, but try to get some sleep, okay?” Dick ruffled Tim’s hair when he nodded then stood.   
“You should take your own orders. You need sleep too Dick,” Barbara chided, holding her hands out for a hug. Dick buried his face in her shoulder, letting a few stray tears out.   
“I don’t know what to do. How could this all go to shit so fast?” He whispered, relaxing at the soothing motions of her hand on his back.   
“Because you guys are Waynes and you can’t do anything without getting in trouble,” she answered softly. “But you guys are also the most skilled, resilient, and stubborn bastards I know. It’ll be okay. I promise. I’ll help you find a safe house for everyone tomorrow and anything else you may need on this adventure of yours, but only if you sleep. Deal?”   
“Deal,” Dick nodded, stepping away and settling in one of the more comfortable chairs. “Night Babs, thanks again.”   
“Anytime Dick,” she walked out of the room, leaving the lights on for her sad boys.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey thanks for reading this, I will update soon. Again, please leave a comment on what your thoughts are or if your confused don’t be afraid to ask any questions and I will answer them. I also take any suggestions you might have for later chapters. Love you all!!!


	12. Heaven Knows (The Pretty Reckless)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Creepy things. I honestly don’t know anymore I’m just copying and pasting

Jason was pissed. Someone had decided to attack his home, while he was asleep, and tried to kill him and the rest of his screwy family. He may consider murdering them every once in a while, but still, rude. Only he gets to kill his family, everyone else can back the fuck off.   
“You doing okay Timmers?” Jason asked, looking over the broken boy. He still looked awful, and Jason cursed himself for ever leaving Tim in the first place.   
“I’m fine Jason, just, wishing I had let Alfred check on my ankle, and that I had gotten sleep,” Tim mumbled, turning to his computer and coffee.   
“Don’t be hard on yourself Tim, just think, if you weren’t so against sleeping, we’d all probably would’ve been killed in our sleep,” Jason stood, poking his bandages.   
“If I had slept the night before I would have been awake enough to know something was wrong before they got Bruce,” Tim snapped back, then hid behind his computer screen.   
“Well, I’m pretty sure I’m not gonna win this fight, so instead, I’m going to beat the crap out of some eggs. You in?” Jason walked towards the kitchen, hoping the Gordon’s wouldn’t mind his little raid of the cabinets. At least cooking would get his mind off his anger.   
“I’m not hungry,” Tim muttered. Jason disagreed, the kid hadn’t eaten anything in front of him in a week, but there was no way he was going to convince a self destructive teen to take care of himself.   
“Whatever you say little dude.” 

“Why are we here again? I thought you said we were supposed to be staying low profile, not holding press conferences,” Jason hissed at Dick, looking at the sea of reporters in front of him.   
“Wasn’t my choice, both Gordon and Bruce’s second in command told me to do this,” Dick whispered back, keeping the paparazzi smile on his face. All four of the Wayne kids were at a press conference to tell the public what the plan was for WE and to answer whatever the hell the reporters wanted to ask about Bruce’s disappearance. If there were any mask wearing psycho’s in the crowd, that’s what Gordon’s finest hand-picked men were for. Jason was feeling so nice and protected it gave him a warm fuzzy feeling, or maybe that was the anger for having to risk their necks for some stupid idiots who spend thier time making good people look bad for the sake of an extra buck and temporary fame.   
“Let’s get this over with,” Jason eyed his other two brothers. Damian was sitting absolutely still, eyes scanning the crowd for even a hint of malicious intent, and Tim seemed jumpy. Like he was up to something and was afraid to get caught. Jason was about to question him when Dick started the conference.   
“How are the four of you coping with such a traumatic event that took place last night?” Jerk One asked.   
“As you can see, the four of us are alive and well,” Dick answered.   
“Do you know who attacked you?” Jerk Two asked now.   
“No.”   
“Who’s going to take over the company while Mr. Wayne is gone?” This question made Dick freeze. Tim jumped up and limped on his crutches to the front, pushing Dick out of the way.   
“I will be acting CEO of Wayne Enterprises while Bruce Wayne is absent,” Tim said, shocking the entire crowd. “If there are any more questions, feel free to email them to me at any time.” Tim gave the hungry sharks one of his probably fifteen emails, grabbed a stunned Dick, and walked off the stage, ignoring the shouted questions of the crowd.   
“What the hell was that?” Jason said as soon as they were far enough away from the reporters.   
“I made a choice. Damian is too young and would fire everyone for their incompetence,” Damian scoffed. “ you would probably end the week by throwing a lamp at an intern,” Jason grumbled about how it wouldn’t be a week. “and Dick is just not cut out for this type of thing. I was already going to have to head a business anyway, I don’t sleep, I don’t snap at people for being stupid, and I can take this hit. The choice seemed simple really,” Tim finished, walking to the car. “Was I wrong?”   
“Dammit Tim, at least tell us next time,” Dick said, running a shaky hand through his hair.   
“Sorry,” Tim turned to look at the three of them. “Now, we really should be going. The cameras are about to turn the corner and the longer we stay in the open the more possible danger we could be in.”   
“He’s not wrong, everyone in that building is icompetent,” Damian followed Tim to the car leaving the two older ones` to try to collect their thoughts.   
“I just hope he knows what he’s doing,” Dick sighed.   
“Out of all of us, he’s got the best chance of being totally collected and calm,” Jaon patted Dick on the back and raced out of the building with him as the sound of the cameras grew louder. 

The safe house they were staying at was pretty nice. There were four separate bedrooms, and two bathrooms split evenly between the two halls that split off as soon as you got out of the entryway. The space opened up into a rich looking living room with white couches and massage chairs facing a giant tv over a fireplace with a wall of windows that had long white curtains. There was a kitchen right next to the tv so the people on the couch could chat with the people in the kitchen while watching football or something fancy. The kitchen island had four bar stools with swivel seats which Jason had always found fun to spin on. The four of them were sitting around the kitchen island on those fancy swivel stools and it took everything manly about Jason (which, according to Roy, wasn’t much) to not just start spinning on those things. Jason had no idea this place even existed, but Dick knew and here they were, waiting. Waiting for what, Jason didn’t know, just that he was starting to feel an itch to move and he was getting really bored.   
“What are we sitting here for Dick?” He asked finally and Dick’s eyes focused on him instead of some spec on the table.   
“We need a plan, and I don’t have anything yet,” Dick muttered the last bit, looking back at the table.   
“Hey Tim?” Jason flicked the screen and Tim stopped furiously typing to give him a brief glance before going looking back at the screen. A little hum was the only thing Tim gave Jason to prove he was paying attention. “Think you can figure out where that photo was taken based off of what you found so far?”   
“What’s the use of a camera angle?” Tim answered bitterly, but seemed to shift gears on his typing. Jason winced at the reference to something he himself had said to Tim, remembering that night very clearly.   
“Can you?” Dick leaned to look over Tim’s shoulder and his eyes widened. “Damn, you can.”   
Tim put the little circle on the table and sent whatever was on the screen into the air in front of them all. There was the picture, and underneath a map of Gotham.   
“So obviously, I had to get rid of all the places that would not have dirt floors,” Tim started and about ¾ of the buildings, mainly in the center of the city, shrunk and disappeared. “Then I got rid of the ones too far away from the river and too close to neighboring houses,” ½ of the rest shrunk to nothing, “Then I tried to find where the camera that took the picture was sold and found that they were sold in some old store before it got shut down. This old store lives near the river right about here,” Tim pointed and a red building popped up. “And the only spot that fits all the requirements is here,” Tim highlighted the old asylum and rubbed his eyes. “I think this is where the picture was taken and it might just be where everyone else is being kept too.”   
“You got all of that, out of a camera angle?” Jason whispered, staring at the green building in shock.   
“That was full on Sherlock Holmes you just pulled there Tim, where’d you get all this talent?” Dick gently pushed Tim’s shoulder and Tim blushed.   
“I had a lot of free time when I was a kid,” Tim went back to the probably thousands of emails he was having to answer now after he pulled his little stunt.   
“Now that we know that, what’s the plan Dickie?” Jason looked at Dick who was scanning the map intensely.   
“I have an idea, but you’re not going to like it.” Dick sighed, running a hand over his face. “You and Tim stay here, I’ll take Damian and we’re going to go scout this place tonight to see if it’s the real deal. When we get back, according to the information we know, we’ll work on a plan from there.”   
“What? We’re just waiting today? Kids could be dying!” Jason protested, standing up from his chair.   
“I get that Jason but look at us! One of us can’t even stand properly! Do you really think we’ll be helping kids if we just ended up captured or even DEAD,” Dick shot back. “I’m taking Damian tonight. He’s probably the most skilled in stealth here and is less likely to fight with me then he is you.”   
Dick left the room, heading to his bedroom and locking the door behind him. As much as he denied it, there were a lot of things he picked up from Bruce and leaving a conversation to avoid argument over your choice was one of them.   
“Sorry Jason, guess it’s my fault you don’t get to punch assholes tonight,” Tim muttered, giving him a glance over his computer.   
“And what are your thoughts demon brat, you’ve been strangely quiet this whole time,” Jason looked at Damian who was texting on his phone.   
“I agree with Grayson that I am the better of you all,” Damian said, not even bothering to look at him. “I also know the value of choosing battles, and that you should not send wounded men into a battle where the only thing they’re going to be good at is dying.” Then he too left the room.   
It’s not that Jason didn’t think Dick was right, that was what pissed him off the most. But he also hated feeling useless and being benched didn’t help those feelings at all.   
“Looks like we’re in for a long night Timbo,” Jason grumbled, going to the kitchen to work out his pent up stress.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please don’t forget to comment your thoughts. They mean the world to me and just make me so happy to see. Love you guys!!!!


	13. Mad Hatter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Damian and Dick go check out the creepy place.

Damian was not creeped out by something as simple as an old abandoned asylum in the most deserted part of town that just screamed haunted. No, not at all. Grayson was the childish one, he’s the one that found this place creepy.   
“You see anything Dami?” Dick whispered, looking over the hill the two of them were squatting behind, looking for any signs of movement.   
“Only your obnoxious personality,” Damian answered, starting towards the building.   
The two of them moved silently across the grass and up to the roof, tense and ready for anything to go wrong.   
Dick motioned his hand to the left and Damian took off, swinging through the window and onto the top floor rafter. He stood motionless, waiting, ears catching every little sound. Calling it clear, Damian gently touched the fifth floor and made his way to the emergency fire exit. If he could get to the third floor he could see directly to the first floor without having to risk exposure.   
He made it to the fourth floor before he realised something was wrong.   
There were shuffling noises but it sounded like it was growing closer. It also had that pattern of step,slide that reminded Damian of a horror movie he had watched with Jason on a dare. He couldn’t sleep at all for the week after and it was entirely Jason’s fault for making the misleading noises.   
A creepy, tuneless whistle sounded from the other side of the fourth story door, right where Damian was standing.   
Quickly, Damian looked for a place to hide and cursed at the emptiness of a fire escape stairway. Time was running out, whoever it was was getting closer, so Damian did something stupid.   
Damian jumped over the side and stuck a knife deep into the staircase, making the only thing keeping him from death was his faith in one knife in an ancient stone building.   
The door opened and Damian held his breath.   
He almost screamed when a head popped over the edge, brown glassy eyes staring into nothing with a brown face covered in blood. The face disappeared as the living person climbed higher. Damian saw another man in another mask dragging the poor dead man up to the roof.   
Damian had to leave, and he had to get to Grayson. It wasn’t safe to stay here any longer.   
He slipped onto the steps and silently slipped through the fourth floor door, seeing it too risky to go up the steps where the masked man went. Plus, Dick was on the other side of the building so it made sense. Damian was almost tempted to just leave, but the weird not logical side of him kept him going through the dark hallway.   
The hallway was dark and smelled like all old abandoned buildings do. There were plants growing on the walls and cracks and holes with-was that a skull?-the floors covered in dirt and dust.   
As Damian silently shot through the hallway, he saw crumpled figures behind barred doors. Not one of them were moving,   
He stopped as the hallways split, each one identical and neither going the way he wanted to go.   
“Shit,” Damian muttered, going with his gut and choosing the hall on the right. He passed more cells, thankfully empty, as he rushed through every hall, randomly choosing the direction he’s supposed to take.   
Damian felt a tug on his arm as he was pulled into an empty cell room. He spun and leveled his fist at his attacker’s face, then stopped.   
“Dick? What the hell?” Damian hissed, stepping back and crossing his arms over his chest.   
“What the hell me? What the hell you? I thought you were going left!” Dick whispered, checking the hallway before silently closing the door.   
“I did go left, I came right to get you,” Damian checked the walls of the room to make sure there were no peep holes or cameras.   
“Why did you need to get me?” Dick checked the windows and closed the blinds.   
“Because we have to get out of here,” Damian finished, turning back to Dick.   
“What did you find?” Dick turned back to Damian, eyes wide and slightly panicked.   
“There’s at least one guy here, another dead dude, though I suspect he’s gone, and some of the cells have inmates,” Damian said, moving slightly closer to the door so he could listen to the hallway better.   
“Damn, Tim was super right,” Dick slid a hand through his hair and sighed, looking at the corner distantly. “Did you find Bruce?”   
“I didn’t spend any time looking, Grayson, I came to find you,” Damian felt embarrassed that he didn’t think about looking for his own father, but tried to push it aside to focus on the more important task at hand.   
“Alright, which way did the man go?” Dick stepped around Damian and rested his hand on the doorknob.   
“He went up to the roof starting on the fourth floor and took the fire escape,” Damian answered, readying for himself for a surprise behind the door.   
Dick opened the door slightly and quickly looked through the hall. He motioned for Damian to follow and the two moved in the darkness towards and exit.   
“We’re going back the way I came in. I didn’t find anyone or anything on the fifth and fourth floor on my side so we should be clear on the way up.” Dick checked the corner and kept going.   
“And if we find someone?” Damian sent a look behind them and found nothing but darkness waiting for them.   
“Then we don’t kill them, but we make sure they can’t raise the alarm,” Dick turned and smiled at Damian. “I think you’ll enjoy that particular job.”   
Damian nodded at his sound logic as they continued their silent sprint through the dark maze of death. 

“Did you find anything?” Jason asked as the two stepped into the house. He was cooking something that smelled like chicken soup while Tim was clicking away on his computer at the counter sipping some coffee.   
“Yeah, we found where everyone is being kept, and we found a guard. There should be another reported body tomorrow. Damian saw someone getting towed away while he was looking around.” Dick plopped on the couch with a sigh. “I’m going to go back in a couple hours and place cameras in strategic hiding spots.”  
“Why?” Jason turned, wiping his hands on a towel.   
“Well, I don’t intend to let anyone else wind up in the river, and Tim’s leg is jacked up,” Dick explained, gesturing to Tim who flushed slightly and hunched over the computer. “So I figured I’d take you and Dami and have Tim watch our backs.”   
“Good plan, where are you going to get the cameras?” Jason leaned on the counter, watching Dick with interest. Damian was sure anything to do with violence would have Jason interested, so it wasn’t that surprising to see him so excited.   
“Babs. She offered to help and I’m sure she’s got plenty of cameras her Dad isn’t using,” Dick sat up and ran a hand through his hair. He seemed to do that a lot when he was stressed. “And if I can’t get any from her, I’ll go back to the cave and grab some from there. They shouldn’t be hanging around there so I’m sure it’ll be safe.”   
Damian wasn’t sure Dick doing all this alone was a good idea, but he was the only one with no serious injuries (other than himself but he shouldn’t compare himself to lesser individuals). He could move without worry of damaging himself further. Plus, one person going would make it much easier to sneak and not be caught, but would make it harder if he did end up getting caught. Tim seemed to be thinking the same thing.   
“That doesn’t seem very safe,” Tim turned and fixed Dick with a worried look. “It’s almost midnight, you didn’t get much sleep last night, and there won’t be anyone there to watch your back.”  
“Well what do you want me to do Tim?” Dick snapped, standing from the couch. “I don’t want to risk you guys, and we need to work faster then what we’re doing. If you suggest we wait then I’m going to have to suggest you keep your opinion to yourself.”  
Tim lowered his head and turned back to the computer. “He’s just trying to make sure you don’t die, Grayson,” Damian hissed, crossing his arms and shifting slightly so he stood partially between Dick and Tim. He was sure Dick wasn’t going to do anything, but everytime he had seen someone in power angry they usually tended to hit the weak, and Tim was the weakest one in this room at the moment.   
Dick glared at Damian, then noticed the way he was standing, and noticed the way Tim was sitting, hunched with a spacey look about him. “Sorry,” Dick said, looking embarrassed as he sat back down again, shoving his hand through his hair. Damian watched him for a minute of tense silence before relaxing and going back to his spot by the tv.  
“So,” Jason started, breaking the heavy silence. “Who's hungry?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey you guys thanks again for reading and don’t forget to tell me what you’re thinking in the comments! Every comment counts towards a happy stable author.


	14. Panic Room

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Timmy isn’t as safe as he thought.

Tim woke up to a face full of keys. Groaning, he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes so he was sitting up on the couch. The room was dark, and getting darker still. He must've slept through dinner, which was kinda sucky, but at least he went to dreamland before school started. Pulling four all-nighters and fighting through one of them really got the body tired.   
“Glad to see you’re awake Timbo,” a voice said behind him. Tim turned to see Jason sitting in the chair, drinking what was sure to be some alcoholic beverage. He could tell from the disgusting smell.   
“How do you manage to drink those things?” Tim wrinkled his nose and leaned back.   
Jason laughed, only it didn’t seem right. The laugh wasn’t quite Jason’s laugh.   
“Where’s Dick and Damian?” Tim asked, searching the room for the missing two of the wonder four.   
“They left already, stuck me here with babysitting you,” Jason grumbled.”You know, I’m getting real tired of babysitting you.”  
Tim just blinked at him. “Wait, but that wasn’t the plan?” Tim shifted so he was facing Jason a bit more, careful of his wrapped leg.   
“Of course it fucking wasn’t,” Jason growled, mood growing dark with the rest of the room. “But they realised that with my injuries that you should have prevented, I was more of a burden than a helper and left me here. This wouldn’t have happened if you had been paying attention!”  
Jason stood, looking terrifying in the dimming light. “Now I’m stuck babysitting a useless brat like you,” Jason’s voice distorted and sounded like Tim’s dad. “The only thing you’ve ever done is get hurt and whine for attention, everybody says so. Even Dick and Bruce.”  
Tim backed up, emotions blocking his airways and making it hard to breathe.   
Jason pulled a gun and aimed it at his face.   
“Your death would make an interesting news story,” now Jason really sounded like Jack Drake. “That’s all the good you could ever do anyways.”  
Jason pulled the trigger. 

Tim shot up, chest heaving as he shoved floating images of guns and Jason out of his mind. It was only a dream. He was on the couch, but there was no Jason, and it wasn’t dark out. He had slept from noon to five which was very impressive and meant he didn’t miss dinner.   
“You okay there Timmy?” Dick asked, walking into the room.   
Even Dick and Bruce. Dream Jason whispered. Tim shook the dream demon from his thoughts and smiled at Dick. “Just a dream, I’m fine.”   
Dick squinted at him suspiciously, causing Tim to panic about how Dick was going to be the first to see through his lies, before he shrugged and continued his walk to the kitchen.   
“We all set for tonight?” Jason said as he went to his beloved cabinets and stove.   
“Yeah, I got the cameras placed no problem, and managed to grab some of Bruce’s overly fancy sneaky gear,” Dick started making coffee and raised a mug in Tim’s direction. Rolling his eyes, Tim nodded and Dick cracked a small smile before turning back to the coffee machine.   
“When are you guys leaving?” Tim wiggled his mouse to wake up his computer and suppressed a groan at the amount of emails he had received in his five hour nap. He hadn’t even finished answering or ignoring the first wave and here he was with a hundred more. Tim was very glad he hadn’t given anybody his number. If Vicky Vale was sending him five emails an hour you can bet she would be calling him non-stop. It seemed like she slept less than Tim and that was almost impossible. He felt his soul, if he had one, grow heavy at the email linking to the news of another dead body found in the river.   
“As soon as the sun goes down. That way when we get there it’s fully dark but it’s not too late to make any of us tired,” Dick answered, pouring the coffee into two seperate mugs, adding way too much cream and sugar in one of them.   
“Ew, that’s disgusting Dick, you’re ruining the coffee,” Tim gagged, watching Dick take a sip of it.   
“No, you’re just weird and have an old man taste in coffee,” Dick walked over and handed Tim his coffee.   
“Doesn’t Bruce like it black?” Tim smiled, taking the cup and sipping it, letting the bitter liquid calm his nerves and finish waking him up.   
“I did say old man taste,” Dick grinned, sitting on the other side of the couch and propping his feet on the coffee table.   
Jason snorted from the kitchen. He was making something that sizzled but Tim wasn’t quite tall enough to see what it was. Being short really sucked sometimes.  
Tim smiled then realised they were missing someone. “Hey, where’s Demon?”   
“Don’t know,” Dick frowned. “Hey Jason, where’s Damian?”   
“He’s either in his room or he’s on the roof hitting the air,” Jason put grilled cheese sandwiches on a plate and laid them on the counter. He wiped his hands on the towel on his shoulder and grabbed a sandwich.”Tim you should eat at least half a sandwich, you didn’t each must last night and nothing today. I even made a tiny one to poke at.”  
Dick looked at him expectantly and Tim checked his internal body functions. Jason was right about how often he ate since they had been here, but his stomach wasn't telling his brain that it needed food at all. The thought of eating made Tim feel sick, but he knew that was just his brain and he really should eat more if he was intending to live past three weeks.   
Tim nodded and Dick and Jason seemed to relax. Dick grabbed the tiny sandwich and brought it over.   
Damian made his appearance then. “Didn’t know you needed help eating, Drake,” he mumbled half heartedly, almost like it was out of habit rather than meaning it, but it made Tim stop.   
The nausea was back and this time Tim couldn’t power through it, so he set the sandwich down. Dick looked at him sadly and sent a small glare at Damian.   
Damian was Tim’s biggest confusing question. One minute he was standing between Tim and Dick in a very protective way and STANDING UP FOR HIM, and the next he’s making fun of Tim. It was seriously confusing.   
“Nevermind I saw something disgusting,” Tim snapped back. Dick looked helplessly between the two and seemed to give up.   
“Can’t you two just get along when it’s not an intense situation?” Dick sighed, rubbing his forehead. “You’re going to give me a headache. There better not be any of this when we’re out tonight.”   
Tim glared at Damian, but just wasn't feeling it. It’s hard to be mad at someone who keeps standing between you and danger. Especially after the events that took place that night at the mansion. Damian had killed one and chopped the other one to bits for just thinking about hurting Tim. It was touching, but also very confusing.   
Tim looked at the sandwich, trying to summon the will to eat it again when his email grabbed his attention. Back to work for him.   
Jason and Dick started up a conversation about the new gossip at school while Jason worked on what looked like cookies. Tim’s phone dinged with a text.   
Confused, Tim picked up his phone to see who would be texting him on his personal phone. Conner never texted Tim until Tim texted first, something Tim respected because of how busy he got sometimes, so it wasn’t him.   
WE HAVE A SURPRISE FOR YOU ON FRIDAY. It was his father’s number, which was very surprising. He has never texted Tim, not even once, there must have been something wrong. Tim’s thumbs hovered over the screen, unsure what to do. He didn’t want to blow it if his dad was trying to be nice to him. He did say he was going to try to be more fatherly after Bruce all but stole Tim from him.   
“Tim!” Tim startled and looked up at the concerned faces of Jason, Dick and Damian.   
“Did you say something?” Tim mumbled, still thinking about the text. It was just one text, what was wrong with him? He shouldn’t be freaking out like this over one text.  
“We’ve been trying to get your attention for five minutes, what’s up?” Dick nodded at the phone.   
“My dad texted,” Tim said slowly, showing Dick, who’s eyebrows scrunched together.   
“What’s so weird about that?” Damian asked, sending a confused look to Jason.   
“Let’s just say my dad has never texted me, at all,” Tim took the phone back and stared at it. “Not even when he heard I was in the hospital.”  
“You’ve been to the hospital?” Damian raised an eyebrow and Tim knew why he was skeptical. When the boys got injured they usually just went to the tiny hospital in the cave, but Tim really needed professional help that time. It had been bad.   
“Yeah, back when Jason pushed me down the stairs, it doesn’t matter,” Tim waved his hand, going back to hesitating over the phone.   
“I said I was sorry!” Jason grumbled.   
“I’m sure it’s fine,” Dick patted Tim’s leg reassuringly. “Maybe he’s just really excited about this surprise of his.”  
“My dad? Excited? Have you met him?” Tim gave a short emotionless laugh.   
“No, and there’s a reason for that,” Dick said darkly.  
“Hey guys,” The three of them turned their attention to Jason, who was looking out the window. The sun was going down. “It’s time.” 

“You got us Tim?” Dick asked into his comm while Damian and Jason checked the gear Dick had grabbed from the cave. They were wearing weapons of their choice - Jason guns, Damian his swords, and Dick his escrima sticks - along with dark clothing made out of kevlar. They had grapples, smoke bombs, flashlights, and Damian even brought a taser. Calling it the best non-lethal weapon he’s ever seen.   
Tim checked the cameras to make sure he could see all the hallways they were going to use and the ones near it before responding.   
“Yeah, I see you, you’re good to go.”   
“Good, cause I’m ready to kick some ass,” Jason grinned, his white streak gleaming in the moonlight.   
“Jason I think your choice in hair fashion is going to get you spotted. It’s sparkling,” Tim teased.   
“Well if I get caught, at least I’ll get caught looking better than all you little shits put together,” Jason answered, briefly reaching up to touch his white poof. He got it dyed a little after his own run-in with death right after he got caught by the Red Hood gang and never got rid of it. He said it was his way of making sure Bruce never forgot how much danger his kids were in.   
“Hear that Dick? He challenged you,” Tim smiled at the screen as Damian facepalmed.   
“Please, Drake, don’t start this again. I am literally begging you,” Damian groaned, slowly dragging his hand down his face.   
“What? You don’t like Dick’s fashion?” In truth, when the boys were hanging out with Barbara, she suggested a fashion show. The things Dick put on were more horrible than the things he’d seen on Gotham’s creepy streets.   
“Can we just get this over with?” Damian begged.   
“Yeah, you guys are clear. I don’t see anyone on the fifth floor.”   
The three of them entered the building on the right side the same way Damian had on their scouting mission.   
“See anything?” Tim asked as they shined their flashlights around the room, looking in every corner. It was completely bare except a few broken rocking chairs and dust bunnies.   
“Nope, we’re going down the stairs, we clear?” Dick turned off his light and looked at the door, yet was ready to leap out the window if it wasn’t clear.   
Tim checked the cameras again and saw no one in the hallways. “There… is no one,” He answered, a feeling of unease creeping up his spine.   
The three cautiously walked down the stairs, weapons raised and ready. Jason had his muffled gun pointed ahead, Damian had his sword in his left and a shuriken in his right, and Dick was holding his sticks in a tight grip. All three of them were nervous, and Tim couldn’t blame them. The asylum was straight out of a horror movie.   
They reached the fourth floor. Dick hesitated at the door. He was waiting for Tim’s okay.  
Tim looked through the halls. They were still clear. There were no signs of movement at all. It was disturbing.   
“You’re all clear, but Dick,” Tim hesitated. Dick raised an eyebrow at the camera. “Be careful, something seems off.”   
“You worry too much Timmers,” Dick sent Tim a reassuring smile and opened the door.   
Tim could barely breathe as they searched the cells, picking the locks open and counting living… and dead. There was a crash downstairs, but Tim ignored it and kept frantically checking the cameras for signs of life. No matter how silent Damian thought he was, there was no way opening those squeaky doors wouldn’t attract attention.   
“Guys, seriously, something’s not right. I think-” Tim froze when he heard someone walking through the hall outside their door.   
“Tim? Tim do you see anything?” Dick asked, stopping his search, but Tim wasn’t paying attention. He was looking at the door handle. The door handle that was turning.   
“SON OF A BITCH!” Jason shouted, snapping Tim out of his fear freeze. “Dick get over here.”   
The door started to open with a click and Tim dove behind the island, grabbing a knife in the process as three sets of heavy footsteps stepped into the supposedly safe house.   
Tim’s heart was hammering in his chest as he struggled to keep his breathing silent. There was a pantry to his left so he should be able to sneak in there before they got close enough to see the door move. Biting his cheek to stay silent, Tim rushed for the pantry and slipped in as silently as he could, wanting to scream at the throbbing pain shooting up his still very injured leg.   
“Alfred?” Dick said through the earpiece, briefly distracting Tim from the intruders.   
There was some mumbling on the other side of the earpiece.   
“The kid’s here, his laptop is still on,” a deep voice said from outside the door. “And lookie here, his little buddies are trying to rescue our hostages that we worked so hard to get.”   
Tim was terrified, he was alone and injured with only a single knife, trapped in a closet with at least three attackers armed with who knows what, and he had no backup.   
“Tim? Tim! Tim are you alright!” Dick shouted into the earpiece, stress coming through the earpiece and burrowing into Tim’s brain.   
“They’re… here,” Tim whispered, hoping he didn’t alert the man in front of the door of his presence. “Dick they’re here.”   
Dick cursed and Jason followed with more colorful options.   
“Okay Tim, you need to hide. We’re about a half hour out. Everything’s going to be okay,” Dick sounded terrified, and that only made Tim even more afraid. If what was going down scared Dick this much…  
The darkness sent him images of a similar situation when he was ten and first met Bruce. There was a police warning on the news earlier that week that the red hood gang was terrorizing Gotham and was still on the loose. Tim easily found where they were hiding out, and decided to take pictures and send them to the GCPD. Only, it hadn’t gone as planned and Tim wound up hiding from some very scary people, waiting in a dark closet for them to come kill him. He had been alone and scared, just like he was now. Only this time, he actually knew how to fight, and they didn’t know he had a knife. He kinda felt like Damian in a way. Small and deadly with a knife.   
There was movement in front of the door and Tim felt his breath catch. He shifted so that he could hit a very sensitive spot with his knife when the man opened the door.  
“They’re coming in Dick,” Tim whispered.   
“Tim, be very careful, don’t do anything stupid.”  
The door opened and Tim stabbed blindly at the shadowy figure. The man screamed in pain and rage as the knife sunk in right above his hip. So, Tim missed, that was fine because he was still distracted and now that Tim was boosted full of adrenaline he easily dodged past a clumsy swing so he was behind the guy.   
Jason was baking cookies in the oven, so Tim grabbed a handful of the dude’s blonde hair, opened the oven, and slammed his head into it.   
Tim could hear the sounds of his buddies thunder into the living room, so he gave the oven one final push and let go. He grabbed the handle of the pretty bloody knife and wrenched it out so he could place a hard blow right on nature’s off switch.   
Shots hit the wall above him and Tim ducked behind the island, grabbing another knife in the proces. The pain was slowly coming back to him but right now being in pain was better than being dead so he pushed it aside.   
A redhead this time poked his head over the island. Tim grabbed his big ears and used his legs as leverage to roll and pull the guy over, knocking the air out of red’s lungs. ‘As red lay gasping, Tim hit him with the but of the knife till he lay still. Pulling back before he did anything serious.   
Then the brunette entered and she had a sword that looked way too pointy and sharp to be in her hands. She looked at her fellow buddies and started laughing. She lunged and Tim just managed to avoid her, stepping behind her and booking it.   
He made it halfway across the living room when she tackled him from behind. He hit the ground, his head bouncing off the edge of the coffee table. His vision blurred briefly as he rolled, barely missing getting sliced with the sword. He sat up, tucked his legs under him, and launched himself at her, her back hit the glass and the window started cracking.   
She coughed, laughed, then smashed the top of his head into the glass, breaking it the rest of the way so there was a head sized hole in it. One more hit and the entire thing would be gone.   
He punched her head to the side as she came up and clawed his face. He hissed when her nails drew blood and she rolled him over so she was straddling him. She started punching at his face and digging her knees into his side painfully. Tim managed to kick and she was leaning forward, but she wrapped her cold hands around his throat and started cutting off his oxygen. Panicking, he grabbed her and threw her over him, through the broken window. She screeched with laughter till she hit the ground.   
Tim coughed and looked over the window, immediately regretting the image. He’d seen someone look that broken before and he never wanted to be the one to cause that. Tim laid on his side and threw up the coffee he had drank earlier that day. He killed someone. Completely in self defense, but still, he took a life. There’s no going back from that.   
Tim let out a tired sigh when he felt the cold metal meet his head. He hoped Dick was almost here, because his fight was over.   
“Tim! Are you still there?” Speaking of… Tim completely forgot that he still had his earpiece in. He was a bit preoccupied. Dick must’ve heard everything.   
“Um, there may be a bit of a problem,” Tim coughed, mouth burning, and turned to look at who had the gun. The blonde with horrible burns grinned at him before bringing the gun down on his head.   
Blissful black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you guys so much for reading!!!!! I hope you enjoyed the chapter!!! Please tell me what you liked or didn’t like or if you have any ideas you want to see in the story!!! Love you guys you guys are the best!!!!


	15. Silent Scream (Anna Blue)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys chase after Timmy. What will happen to this poor boy???

“Be careful, something seems off,” Tim said in their earpiece. Dick smiled, only Tim would worry about the security of an empty building.   
“You worry too much Timmers,” Dick looked in the direction of the camera and gave Tim a hopefully reassuring smile.   
Then he grabbed the cold door handle and opened it, stepping through.   
The halls were exactly as he remembered it, all dark and falling apart. He motioned for them to spread out as he went for the first door on the right and started picking the lock. The door opened and he walked in to find one still body. When he checked the pulse he found a faint heartbeat.   
They kept working through them, getting near the end when Tim came back on sounding panicked. “Guys, seriously, something’s not right. I think-”  
“Tim? Tim do you see anything?” Dick asked, stopping in his search. Tim wasn’t responding.   
“SON OF A BITCH!” Jason shouted from down the hall. “Dick get over here.”  
Dick hesitated, but followed to see what Jason was so upset about, Damian bringing up the rear.   
A familiar body was crumpled in the corner of the room, beaten and bloodied.   
“Alfred?” Dick gasped rushing to his favorite butler’s side. Alfred was whispering something and Dick leaned in closer.   
“Trap… it’s a trap… master Dick you have… have to find master Tim… they know… they know where you are,” then he started coughing.   
Dick’s heart stopped as the old man’s words sunk in.   
He hadn’t heard from Tim in a while.   
“Tim? Tim! Tim are you alright!” Dick shouted into the earpiece, absolutely terrified about the fate of someone they were trying to protect.   
There was still no answer.   
“Grayson what’s going on? What’s wrong with Drake?” Damian asked, looking at Dick worriedly. “He’s not responding.”   
Dick waved at him to quiet as he heard Tim’s voice.   
“They’re...here” he whispered slowly and so low Dick had to strain to hear him. “Dick they’re here.”   
Dick let out a loud swear, Jason following close behind, as Damian’s face paled.   
“Okay Tim, you need to hide. We’re about a half hour out. Everything’s going to be okay,” Dick said, rushing back the way he came. The other people could wait, he needed to save his little brother. Dick paused for a second to point to Alfred. Jason nodded and Dick was relieved he forced them to play charades the second week they had all been together. It was paying off.   
Damian followed Dick as he ran up the stairs and recklessly threw himself out of the window, barely hitting the grapple in time to not be splatted against the ground.   
Dick slid into the driver’s seat, waiting for Damian to close the door before gunning back to the city.   
“They’re coming in Dick,” Tim whispered, voice shaky and afraid.   
“Tim, be very careful, don’t do anything stupid.” Dick jerked the wheel to turn a corner, completely ignoring the stop sign.   
There were the sounds of a struggle and screams that came from the earpiece. Dick’s hands tightened on the wheel as Damian let out a low growl. Everything went still. There were the sounds of retching before that stopped too.   
“Tim! Are you still there?” Dick asked desperately, barely breathing with worry. They were still twenty minutes away, there was no way they were going to make it in time. .   
“Um, there may be a bit of a problem,” Tim coughed. There was a loud thump and static as the earpiece was shifted.   
“Don’ worry ‘bout your brother,” a deep voice said. “Me an’ him are gonna have a great time together.”   
There was an ear shattering squeak and the line went dead.   
“Wait no! Tim!” Dick screamed, chest squeezing his heart in panic.   
“He… the line’s dead,” Damian whispered in a choked voice. Dick risked a glance at Damian. He was crying. Silently, sure, but those were definitely tears.   
“We’ll find him okay? There’s no way they’re going to get away with-”   
A speeding truck slammed into the driver’s side of the car and the two went rolling down the hill. Once, twice, three times maybe even four before it finally stopped moving. Blacking out, Dick had just enough strength left in him to push the panic button before sinking into unconsciousness. 

Pain. That’s the only thing he could feel. Constant, unyielding, pain.   
Dick opened his eyes only to be met with the painful lights of a hospital recovery room. He hadn’t seen one in years. Dick groaned as he thought back to what could have possibly ended with him in the hospital and in this much pain.   
“Dick, you’re awake!” Jason cried. Dick forced his eyes open again, waiting for them to adjust as he took in his surroundings.   
He had bandages on his chest, arms, and head. There were some small cuts on his legs. How did this happen to him?   
¨Jason… what…” Dick tried asking, voice dry and gravelly.   
¨Dick, do me a huge favor and shut up for once. I’m going to give you the big run down on what’s been going on and why you look like a highschool play mummy,” Jason leaned back in the hospital chair. “While you and Damian rushed off to get Tim, I finished helping people out of their restraints and making sure Alfred wasn’t dying before calling the cops to alert them that I found their secret stash of missing persons. That’s when your emergency signal showed up. Apparently, halfway back, some vehicle slammed into the car and rolled it off the road. You and Damian were out when I got there, so I called an ambulance, given none of you could fit on the bike I stole. Damian’s got a broken arm, a serious concussion, a cracked collarbone, and a bunch of glass cuts from the windshield. You however, well, I bet you can feel how you were injured.” Jason took a deep breath. “As soon as the ambulance picked you guys up alive, I went back to the safe house to see if I could find Tim. He… there was a girl’s body on the pavement outside our window, another one with it’s face smashed in in the kitchen, and no sign of Tim or where they took him. The only thing I could find was this,” Jason pulled out a piece of green paper and showed it to Dick.   
I O U ONE TIM. HA HA HA.   
Dick cursed, trying to get up. His body screamed at him that he wouldn’t be doing that anytime soon.   
“Hey, you stay right there. I had to make sure you were up, but now that you’re informed I’m going to find Tim. Don’t you worry about that. I’m not letting another one of Bruce’s kinda kids die at the hands of some stupid lowlife with a grudge against Bruce,” Jason cracked his neck side to side then stood. “You get better Dickie, we’re going to need you when we go after the head man.”   
And with that, Jason disappeared into the night.   
‘Hang in there Tim,’ Dick thought, drifting back to sleep. ‘Jason’s coming and there is no force on this Earth that is going to stop him from finding you.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I got into a huge “I must hurt Tim” phase and this is what happened. Everything will work out fine....probably. Anyway!!! Thanks for reading this!!! Honestly it means so much and please please PLEASE comment on what you think. Other than that I hope you guys are doing okay and I love you all!! Stay safe! Wear masks!


	16. Teenager (MCR)

Jason thought he knew anger. He thought he knew pain. But this, this just gave a whole new meaning to those words. As he drove down the dark streets of Gotham he made a vow that he would find Tim’s kidnappers, and they would die slowly.   
The motorcycle was barely turned off before Jason had launched himself off it.   
“Barbara!” He shouted, banging his fist against their hard wooden door.   
She opened, wiping the sleep from her eyes, still in her pajamas. “What’s going on?”   
“Tim’s been kidnapped.”   
Her eyes widened. She stepped back and let him into her house.   
“What do you know?” She sat down on the couch and pulled open her computer.   
“There were two bodies left at the crime scene, blood in a few key places, the normal sort of kidnapping after a struggle deal. Well, except for the two bodies Tim left,” Jason started, opening and closing his shaky hands. He had to get himself together if he was going to rescue Tim.   
“What did the bodies look like? Any ID?” Barbara logged on to the criminal database and started looking through past convicts.   
“The dude had red hair, heavy set, about 5’10, with a classic skull tattoo on his arm. The chic was a brunette, thin, about 5’4,” Jason listed off, thinking back to when he looked.   
There had been so much blood in the kitchen. The pantry door was wide open, a knife was missing, and the oven was open and on. There had been a body on the kitchen floor, face smashed beyond recognition with blood pooling around him. After the initial shock at such a horrible sight faded, Jason had further investigated to find blood on the coffee table and blood by the broken window. Then that green paper fell off the ceiling, and Jason’s vision turned red with hate.   
“Jason!” Jason snapped back into focus with Barbara snapping her fingers in front of his face.   
“Sorry,” Jason shook his head, clearing his thoughts. “What'd you say?”   
“I was wondering if these were the guys,” Barbara turned the screen around to show the chic on the street and the body in the kitchen, but more alive and in prison clothes.   
“Yup,” Jason glared at the photos. Wishing they were alive just so he could kill them again. Why did Tim have to go and kill them? “Oh shit!”  
“What? Did you remember something?” Barbara asked, urgency in her voice.   
“They’re dead,” he mumbled, cracking his knuckles.   
“Yeah,” Barbara nodded her head slowly, probably thinking he was stupid.   
“Tim killed them. You know what that’s going to do to Tim?” Jason felt panic start to rise in his chest. He remembered the first time he killed someone. He had felt like a monster for months until Roy told him otherwise. Tim had Conner, but there was no way Tim was going to tell Conner what he did. He was going to take this hard. “Ever since the Grayson’s fell, Tim has hated the thought of killing anybody. Especially by falling like that. Oh my god he was throwing up.”   
“Jason, snap out of it!” Barbara slapped the back of his head. Jason turned and glared at her, before realising who he was glaring at and backing down. “He’s going to be fine.”   
“I know it’s just… it’s Tim. I can’t let anything happen to him. Not after what I did,” Jason felt that gaping hole in his chest that had been closing ever so slowly since his death grow a bit wider.   
“Hey, I was there for that. I know why you feel protective of him but you have to keep your shit together, or you're going to be useless. Both Damian and Dick are in the hospital from a wreck that was probably planned, so it’s just you that can go get him,” Barbara grabbed his fiddling hands and squeezed them. “So pull yourself together, and work with me to go kill some cowardly bastards.”   
Jason took a deep breath, gathering all his negative emotions, and pushed them out with a long exhale. He found his rage and focused on it, and with that focus came control. He couldn’t wait to hurt these people. There wasn’t a place in Gotham safe for them anymore. Jason Todd was coming for their heads.   
“Great, now that I got you on a murder rage,” Barbara turned to her computer. “I found people they associated with before they were incarcerated. They all had one thing in common.” She turned the computer around. Jason’s anger grew into hate.   
“The Red Hood gang,” he growled.   
“And guess who was bunking with them,” she clicked on a second tab to show a blonde, blue eyed, buff man.   
“Think you can find him?” Jason memorized the man’s face. If he was the one that took Tim, this would be the last time his face looked like that.   
“Yeah,” Barbara hesitated.  
“What? What’s wrong?” Jason didn’t like the way she was hesitating. It wasn’t good when somebody hesitated like that.   
“It might take a while. Gotham’s pretty big,” she looked down sadly.   
Jason cursed, punching his leg. “Fine. Just tell me the second you find something.”  
“You know I will,” she started typing on her computer. Jason took that as his cue to leave and walked out the door. 

Jason sat beside Damian’s bed, listening to the steady beep of the heart monitor. Damian’s head was wrapped in thick white bandages, and he had smaller ones peppering the rest of his body.   
According to the doc from earlier, during the wreck Damian suffered a traumatic brain injury and they had no idea when he’d wake back up. They were going to keep him over night to keep an eye on him should it turn into a severe head injury.   
“Damn Damian, how did this all get so screwy,” Jason sighed. “I am definitely not the first person I’d choose to have to make all these choices. Making choices was always Dick’s thing, but he needs to focus on not dying. Shit.”   
Jason hated hospitals. He’d been in a hospital enough to know that it’s not something he likes. He still remembered the first time he’d been in one of these beds. Bruce had just found the warehouse the Red Hood gang had kept him in. Thank god he wasn’t too late, but Jason regretted even deciding his mother was worth the trip. All she had done was give him to the gang. Jason tugged on his white streak. The other time spent in the hospital wasn’t nice at all either. Though he was trying to ignore that image. It really didn’t help that Damian in the hospital bed kept reminding him of Tim.   
God he had screwed up then. He was just so angry to find that Bruce had grabbed another kid in his absence. It was only three months and it seemed like Bruce had moved on. But then he had pushed Tim down those stairs and seeing such a small kid look so broken… it finally hit Jason that he had almost murdered an innocent child just because he was angry. He promised that he would never let anything happen to that small boy again. And nothing did, until now.   
“You seem to be great at breaking promises,” Jason muttered to himself. If he couldn’t protect someone as nerdy as Tim, then what good was he?   
“Mr. Todd?” the pretty nurse that had been taking care of Dick popped their head in. “Richard Grayson wants to see you. He asked for you specifically.”   
Jason thanked the nice nurse, waited till they left, said his goodbye’s to Damian’s sleeping form, then went to see what Dick wanted.   
“What’s up Dick?” Jason aked, sitting down beside the bed.   
“Have you found anything yet?” Dick’s voice sounded terrible. As rough as sandpaper. Probably what it felt like too.   
“Not yet, I have Babs checking all the cameras to see if they can spot Tim or the bodies’s buddy,” Jason hated telling Dick that he had no idea where Tim was. Dick had enough to worry about as it was, he didn’t have to worry about how Jason was going to fuck up this time.   
“I trust Babs,” Dick took a deep breath, grimacing in pain at the extra movement. “I also trust you.” Jason knew Dick was going to regret it. He was putting his trust in the wrong guy. If Jason had just kept himself together, he would have realised it wasn’t safe to leave one of their own behind.   
“Hey,” Dick’s fingers twitched. Jason reached forward and lightly put his hand on Dick’s wraapped arm. “No one could have guessed that they were going to go after Tim.”  
“Tim did,” Jason sighed. “He told us something wasn’t right, and we didn’t listen to him.”   
“And for that, I take the blame. I called the shots, it’s my fault,” Dick’s fingers twitched against Jason’s hand again. “Don’t blame yourself, call Roy if you need him, and find our little brother.”   
“Have you heard about Damian yet?” Jason said, directing the conversation from his guilt.   
“That nice nurse has been keeping me informed,” Dick answered.   
“Yeah, they seem to be good at their job. NOw, I’m going to go back to… somewhere… to wait for Babs to get back to me. You need to get some more sleep,” Jason patted Dick’s leg then stood to leave.   
“Jason,” Dick started, making Jason pause in his tracks. “You need to get some sleep too alright?”   
Jason turned to give Dick a smile, then left. 

The phone was ringing.   
“C’mon c’mon c’mon. Pick up,” Jason muttered, sitting in the parking lot.   
“If this isn’t important, I might just hurt you,” the man sounded groggy, and pissed. “It’s three a.m. Jason, what’s up?”  
“Roy can I… can I stay with you tonight? Some things went down and… well it’s important,” Jason tugged on his white strand, focusing on the slight pain that came from it to keep his nerves down.  
“Yeah, yeah sure. How long till you get here?” Roy sounded less asleep now.   
“Uh, ten minutes ish?” Jason answered, looking around at the still city.   
“Sounds good,” Roy ended the call.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here you go guys. Sorry it took so long I got distracted. Have fun!


	17. Last of the Real Ones

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Let’s find Timmy!!!! Jason is really a worried mother.

He didn’t know where he was. All he could see were two concrete walls, a metal restraint chair, and a heavy metal door. He seemed to be in a small closet sized room in the corner of the dark room. The door seemed like more of a grate. There was a deep humming above him, telling him that he must be in a maintenance hatch. It was cold, and wet, and he could feel rough steel around his right ankle and wrist. A drop of water dripped onto his face and started working its way into his eye. He felt the water pooling on the bottom of the area soak into his clothes. This would definitely lead to illness. His leg hurt. A lot. Along with his head. But he pushed it aside with the task of finding out everything he could about his situation.   
His only company was the ringing. That constant ringing that grinded against his nerves as he tried to hear anything.   
The door opened with a grinding noise and he craned his neck to see who was coming in.   
It was another one of those freaking masks.   
The mask was pushing a steel cart with some sort of black box on it. The mask attached jumper cables to the metal chair, whistling ‘pop goes the weasel’.   
“Hello Timmy,” a crazed voice said, turning slowly to face him. “I believe you have some information I need.” 

“So, you’re telling me, everything has gone to shit and now you need my help?” Roy leaned against his old gray couch.   
“Well I didn’t say help…” Jason said, looking at the carpeted floor. Roy raised an eyebrow at him. “Okay, yeah I need your help.”   
“Do you want me to call Kory?” Roy held up his phone.   
“Speaking of, how is Kory nowadays?” Jason asked, knowing he was getting distracted by deciding to let himself worry over something else when there was still nothing he could do about it.   
“She’s doing good. She’d totally drop everything she’s doing to come kick some ass with you if you want. You know she’s sentimental that way,” Roy said.   
“I had her help me beat the shit out of that guy one time. Just one,” Jason defended.   
“And that one time went to another time, and another, until Bruce had to sit you down and talk to you about how joining a gang was not okay and he couldn’t protect you anymore,” Roy took a drink of his water and set it down on the coffee table between them.   
“Okay fine, I had a bit of a problem,” Jason admitted, sighing as his brief moment of freedom was ended by a wave of familiar anxiety and rage.   
“So, are we calling her?” Roy waved his phone around to get the conversation back on track.   
Jason took a moment to yawn before nodding.   
“Alright, you get to bed, I’ll call her,” Roy’s face showed that he was not going to take any arguments.   
“I’m leaving my phone, if Babs calls tell me immediately,” Jason stood and walked to the side door into Roy’s room.   
He must’ve been tired. As soon as his head hit the pillow he was out.   
“Jason, Roy says it’s time for you to wake up,” a familiar feminine voice said, pulling Jason from the darkness of sleep.   
“Hey Kory,” Jason grumbled, opening his eyes to see the head of red hair.   
“No time for greetings, Roy says it’s important,” this time Kory literally pulled Jason from the darkness of sleep, and onto the carpeted floor.   
“Alright, alright, I’m on it. What time is it anyway?” Jason rubbed his throbbing head, holding back a shove. He knew better than to start fighting with Kory.   
“You slept all day. It’s eight.”   
His stomach proved that fact with a low grumble. Jason patted it and walked into the living area, to find Roy on the phone. His phone.   
“Alright Babs, he’s here,” Roy said, waiting for her response before handing it over.   
Jason wasn’t hungry anymore.   
“You find anything?” Jason forced out, internally panicking over what news she had. According to Kory’s information, it’d been 24 hours since Tim was taken.   
“That’s the problem,” Barbara sounded sad, and angry.   
“What?” Jason waited for an answer. “Babs what’s going on?”   
“I searched through everything three times, but I couldn’t find anything anywhere. They just showed up at the safehouse and disappeared,” Barbara sounded like she was crying. “I can’t find him, Jason. I don’t… I don’t know where he is. It’s like he never left.”   
Jason’s world stilled, then turned red. He wanted to scream, hit something, someone, but she sounded so broken about it. “Keep looking,” was all he managed to say without screaming. He hung up and threw his phone at the wall, cursing loudly.   
“Hey! I know you're upset but no throwing things or I’m gonna sick Kory on you!” Roy snapped.   
“I hate waiting and not knowing what is happening to him!¨ Jason ranted. “These people are psychos! They blew up a party of children! Who know what they could be doing to Tim! We don’t even know why they took him!”   
“I know, and we’re going to find him. You just gotta shut up and know that he’s going to be fine. They wouldn’t take him if they didn’t want something from him and you would know if he’s dead so calm. Down,” Roy put his hands on Jason’s shoulder’s looking him in the eye. “Things aren’t ever as bad as they seem.” 

Everything in his body hurt. He was finally able to go back to his hole, though that might not have been better health wise. But at least they weren’t hurting him anymore. He was sure that the new cuts on his body were going to get infected with the disgusting water. He was so tired, and in so much pain.   
“C’mon guys,” he whispered, voice raspy and hurt after hours of screaming. “Please, hurry.”

48 hours into this ordeal and Jason still hadn’t heard any good news. He had worn down a spot in the carpet from pacing, went through a punching bag, and made dozens of cookies during that time.   
Jason wasn’t the only one on edge either. Kory and Roy were sparing in the other room at the moment and from the sound of things it sounded like Kory was winning. Easily. It didn’t sound like Kory took very many hits at all.   
Then his phone beeped.   
Dropping the spoon for the tenth batch of cookies, Jason rushed across the room to grab it. He hoped it was some good news from Babs. All it was was a text from Dick.   
GET OVER HERE. NOW.   
“Roy! I’m gonna go check on Dick at the hospital! I’ll text you if I figure something out!” Jason called into the apartment, already heading to the door.   
“Sounds good!” Roy yelped as Jason closed the door and sprinted down the stairs to his bike. The elevator simply takes too long to use.

“What’s going on Dick?” Jason walked into the room, finding Damian sitting in his usual spot beside Dick. Both of them were pale.   
“You should see this,” Dick nodded to Damian who, with shaking hands, handed Dick’s phone over to Jason.   
Jason looked at the picture in front of him and wanted to puke.   
There was Tim, only, it didn’t look like the smiling nerd from before. Tim’s hair was wet and pulled back, some patches missing. He had blood running down his face, two black eyes, cuts on his cheeks to make him look like he was smiling, a broken nose, bruises on his throat, cuts and bruises on his bare chest, and there were jumper cables attached to a metal chair he was sitting on. His broken leg looked absolutely awful. It was swollen three times its size and was colored in a sick shade of purple. His perfect white teeth were now bloody. He was a mess, and it only fueled Jason’s rage against this sicko.   
Jason exited out of the picture to see the number that texted it to him only to find the text that followed it.   
OOPS. LOOKS LIKE I BROKE HIM. LOL.  
“This is sick,” Jason growled, squeezing the phone till his fingers turned white.   
“I know where he is,” Damian whispered, voice full of a mix of hate and sorrow. “I recognise the surroundings.”  
“Well where the hell is it then!” Jason snapped, impatience getting to him.   
“It’s the basement of the not-so-safehouse. I found it when I was doing a perimeter search,” Damian answered, obviously not pleased with being yelled at.   
Jason was out of the door before Damin even finished his sentence. Finally, he had something to do and some bitches to kill.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for staying with this you guys!!! You guys are so awesome and I love you all!!! Please, don’t be afraid to tell me what you think in the comments they keep me tethered to this world.


	18. Sarcasm (Get Scared)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They go to get Timmy

Jason rushed into Roy’s apartment.   
“We got him!” He shouted into the apartment, grabbing his bag full of weapons and other useful things off the floor.   
Roy and Kory joined him quickly, armed with their favorite weapons. Roy with his bow and Kory with her wrist flamethrowers.   
“Where is he?” Roy asked, tying his shoes.   
“Where Babs said he was. He’s at the safehouse, only he’s in the basement,” Jason smiled wickedly. “They can’t run from us now.” 

The three pulled up to the dark safehouse, taking in the building to make sure they weren’t walking into an ambush.   
“Alright, we know the plan?” Jason said, checking his guns.   
“Kill whoever moves or wears a mask,” Roy started.   
“Unless it’s Tim. Then kill everyone but Tim,” Kory finished.   
“Perfect,” Jason grinned and jumped out of the car. Kory behind him and Roy bringing up the rear.   
The building was silent. The three went through the halls of the first floor without there being a problem. They got to the basement door and didn’t hesitate to kick it in and keep going.   
They did meet someone there. Too bad those masked freaks didn’t know who they were dealing with and were quickly taken down by three murderous teens. It made Jason feel nice to put bullets in their skulls and watch them stop moving. That’s what they got for even thinking about messing with Tim while he was under Jason’s protection.   
They opened door after door but found nothing. No Tim in sight.   
“This is the last one,” Jason whispered, making sure Kory and Roy were watching his back before carefully opening the heavy metal door.   
There was the chair. The chair that Tim had been sitting in in the photo. But there was no Tim.   
“Shit! Where is he! The guards made it seem like he was here!” Jason shouted, his voice echoing in the large empty room.   
“Wait, do you hear that?” Kory raised her hand to shush him, her head tilted to the side.   
Jason sighed and listened closer. It sounded like a cough. A weak one, but it was still a cough.   
Jason looked at his teammates and the three of them spread out around the room, checking every wall for any signs of a secret entrance.   
“Hey! I got something!” Roy shouted from the left corner of the room.   
Kory and Jason gathered around, looking into a dark closet underneath a broken water heater. It was cold and wet, and the door was just a grate.   
Jason shined his flashlight into the room. There was a small shirtless and bleeding boy near the back wall. He was curled up facing away from the door, shivering. His body shook as he coughed.   
“Tim?” Jason asked, slamming his gun against the lock, breaking it. He pulled it open, stepping cautiously into the room while Kory and Roy watched his back. “Tim are you doing okay buddy?”   
Tim turned, a ruined face facing him. His bloodshot eyes widened with panic. He screamed with a ruined voice.   
“NO! NO STAY AWAY PLEASE! PLEASE I ALREADY TOLD YOU! PLEASE DON’T HURT ME!” Tim kicked with his right leg, trying to push himself further into the corner, terrified tears pouring down his face. “PLEASE! Please, please, please…” Tim bent over, coughing up bloody phlegm.   
“Tim! It’s just me! It’s Jason!” Jason raised his hands, throwing the gun behind him. He took slow steps, sinking down on Tim’s level when he was next to the broken child. He had to keep himself calm. Showing any of the anger he felt right now- which was a significant amount- would only make the situation worse. “It’s Jason.”   
Tim’s breathing sounded ragged and short, but it seemed to calm. His eyes flashed recognition and he stopped trying to meld with the wall.   
“Jason,” he gasped. He choked on a sob, flinging himself forward and wrapping cold arms around Jason’s neck. He started ugly sobbing into Jason’s shoulder. Jason was taken aback. Tim never initiated hugs. Ever. He assumed it had something to do with his home environment and Tim simply never knew what he was supposed to do with his arms. He also never cried. What did these bastards do to his little brother to completely break him?   
“Jason, Jason, Jason,” he sobbed into Jason’s shirt, saying his name like he was praying to a god.   
“It’s okay now Timmers. We’re gonna get you out of here,” Jason carefully rubbed Tim’s back, avoiding all the red and angry cuts on it. He looked behind Tim, seeing his ruined leg attached to the chain on the wall.   
“Hey Tim, I’m going to bring Roy in so he can get you out of here okay? I’m not letting you go, and you’re not going to get hurt but I need you to not freak out. Can you do that for me?” Jason asked softly.   
Tim nodded slightly, not breaking in his whispered mantra.   
Jason nodded at Roy, who carefully walked into the room , telegraphing what he was doing.   
Tim tensed and whimpered, clinging on to Jason like he was the only thing keeping him alive.   
“It’s okay Timmers, I’m right here,” Jason whispered.   
Tim screamed into Jason’s shirt when Roy touched his ankle.   
“Careful!” Jason snapped, hating to see his brother hurt like this.   
“I’m doing what I can,” Roy hissed, taking out lockpicks and gently going at it.   
Tim’s sobbing was slowing down. “D-Dami? D-Dick?” He whispered, coughing wetly into the shirt again.   
“Don’t worry, they’re okay,” Jason said, watching the chain come off. Tim sighed in relief.   
“W-Where?” He croaked, voice hoarse and rough.   
“They’re at the hospital, but Dami will surely see you and Dick too when he’s feeling better. They’ve been so worried,” Jason said, choosing his words carefully. Jason was sure Tim probably thought they weren’t coming for him. He had a hard time imagining himself as anything but a burden to people. Something they were working on.   
“Dami? Worried? Don’t trick me,” Tim said, voice growing weaker.   
“You have no idea Timmers,” Jason took a deep breath. “Alright, I’m going to lift you up, only it’s going to hurt like hell. Can you do this?”   
Tim nodded, clenching on to Jason.   
“Alright Tim, here we go. On three,” Jason shifted so he could have a hold on his back and legs. “One, two, three.” In one solid movement Jason lifted Tim off the floor. Tim screamed, voice cracking and dying. The cold body shuddered as he wrapped himself around Jason like a koala.   
“There we go, Tim. See? Not that hard,” Jason adjusted so he had a better hold of Tim and started out to the car. “We’re going to get you to the hospital, then you can see all your brothers instead of just plain old me.”   
“Thank you Jason,” Tim rasped, barely audible over the sound of Jason’s footsteps.   
“No problem Timmers. You just get better, okay? And stop getting beat up all the time,” Jason chided, feeling Tim relax in his arms. His small amount of breathing evened out and he was asleep. “We got you Tim, everything’s going to be okay.”   
“He said he told them something, what did he tell them?” Kory said as Jason passed.   
“I don’t know, but right now, I’m focused on getting Timmy to the hospital,” Jason shushed Tim as he started whimpering in his sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you guys so much for reading this. I know you heard me say this before but please comment what you think. You guys are seriously the best and I hope you have a great day!!!! My guys in Texas, hang in there guys. There’s always hope.


	19. Alphabet Boy

Damian sat by the bed, the constant beeps his only companion. He looked at Tim and resisted the urge to cry. No, he would not cry. Crying is for the weak and he already let himself slip up before the accident. Crying was for the weak, yet the weak was the one he wished to cry for. It made sense that the weakest one was the one to go down, but Damian had wanted to believe in Dick’s plan. He wanted to believe that it would work so badly he made the mistake of thinking it would work out. That Dick would somehow be able to plant all those cameras and get out of there without being watched. This is what his mother was talking about when she said he couldn’t trust anyone to think properly, and why he should’ve never shown emotions in the first place. He had protected Tim, and it almost got Tim killed.   
Damian lightly cursed his own weakness, staring at the shivering teen in front of him.   
He had pneumonia, the doctors said. Pneumonia, broken leg, several infected wounds, starving, dehydration, the works. His chest rose and fell, only stopping to cough those horrible coughs.   
“I’m so sorry, Tim,” Damian whispered, scared to disturb Tim. “I should not have been so stupid as to believe Dick’s plan would work.”   
He didn’t get any response, leaving him alone with his thoughts. He’d been alone with his thoughts a lot lately.   
He thought back to when he first met Tim. Damian had always tried to be the best, the best is what his mother demanded. If you’re not the best, you’re worth nothing and in need of replacing. So he became the best at fighting, at strategy, at having no mercy. His mother never said she was proud, but she never threw him away. Then his home was burned to the ground and he was dumped into the care of a father he never even knew he had. She didn’t even stop the car to drop him off.   
He thought he was being rejected. That because he hadn’t been able to save his grandfather he’d been cast out of the family and was now to be replaced. Even with that thought in mind he was determined that he would be the best here. There was nowhere else he could go.   
He found he was not alone in the house. His father had taken a liking to three other boys who were all older than him so immediately he felt the pressure to be the best. It was very hard. He was just barely better than Dick and Jason but Tim… There was no way Tim would win in a fight against Damian but Tim seemed to be able to pick up on things that were invisible. There were things he could see that others couldn’t and that made him the smartest person Damian had ever met. Damian had no chance against him when it came to being the best. It scared Damian, and Damian couldn’t be scared. It was much easier to convince himself that he hated him. The best way to protect yourself is to get rid of the danger, and Tim was a danger to him.   
Before Damian was afraid of being replaced, so he took it out on Tim. Now? Now Damian didn’t know how he felt about his brother, only that instead of being afraid of Tim he was afraid of losing Tim.   
Damian shocked himself out of his thoughts and back on to Tim. Tim’s muscles tensed.   
“Tim?” Damian tentatively reached a hand out to him. He lightly touched Tim’s hand.   
Tim started convulsing, heart rate spiking.   
“Tim!” Damian shouted, panic gipping his chest. “Doctor! Somebody help!”   
Tim’s body was spasming. Damian stood, horrified.   
“Out of the way kid!” A doctor in blue pushed past.   
Damian backed into a corner and watched as the doctors shouted words and put Tim on his side. His ears were ringing, heart beating, breath not coming to him. He was very scared as he watched his brother for what seemed like forever.   
Tim stopped shaking and the doctors checked his vitals.   
“Is he okay?” Damian whispered, staring at Tim’s sleeping body.   
The doctor that had treated all the brothers so far turned to him with a tired smile. “He’s fine. He just had a seizure due to electrical shocks,” they smiled again before leaving.   
“It’s fine,” he whispered to himself. “Tim’s fine, see? Look at the beeper. He’s still alive.”   
Jason popped his head in and frowned at Damian.   
“Why are you in the corner?” Jason asked. Damian looked down and saw he had pressed himself as far as he could into the corner as possible. Damian cleared his throat and stepped away from the wall.   
“Tim had a… a seizure and the doctors needed room,” Damian internally cursed at his pause. He would not be weak. Weakness was what got them into this mess in the first place. But he wasn’t going to lie and say that he wasn’t shaken.   
“You okay?” Jason stepped forward, holding a hand out to him. Damian flinched back.   
“I’m fine, Jason,” Damian growled, going back to his watch over Tim. “How’s Dick?”   
Jason paused at the mention of his name, but didn’t stop for long. “Dick’s doing better. He should be able to walk okay tomorrow.”   
“Good. I’m sure he wants to see…” Damian couldn’t say his name. Saying it felt like a privilege he had lost. You earn the ability to use others' names, and Damian has done nothing but endanger his brother. That is not earning anything.   
“You have no idea. He tried to get me to take pictures just so he could see him safe,” Jason leaned against the wall, crossing his arms over his chest protectively. He looked at Tim and a haunted look passed over his face.   
Silence spread between the two.   
“We sure have a way of screwing things up, don’t we?” Jason chuckled darkly.   
“It’s a talent of ours,” Damian added. 

He was in the car, lights flashing past as they sped through the streets. He had to go faster. He couldn’t be late. His brother needed him. He could feel warm tears slipping out of his eyes without permission. He didn’t try to stop them.   
A bright white flash blinded him and then he was flying. His seatbelt bit into his neck and his head hit the top of the car as it met the ground. The world kept spinning. Shards of glass cut his body. His head swam. The car stopped. He heard groaning next to him. The blood was rushing to his head and out of his head wound. His vision darkened.   
Damian gasped, eyes flinging open.   
Jason eyed him from the other side of Tim’s bed.   
Damian lifted a shaky hand, brushing his hair back and sitting up right in the chair.  
“You okay there Dami?” Jason said, looking at Damian’s hands.   
“I’m fine. Quit asking,” Damian snapped. He looked over at Tim to check on him. “Has he woken up yet?”   
“Just briefly,” Jason sounded sad. “He freaked out and had to be sedated.”   
“I’m sure he’ll get better. His mind is strong,” Damian was not very good at this whole comforting thing.   
“That’s the thing,” Jason started. “He’s freakishly smart, no doubt about it, but that kind of intelligence? It always leaves the user unstable. He was a bit weird before this and now? Now I think he might be broken.”  
“Well,” Damian had a feeling Jason was like him. He needed a different kind of comforting. “If he does break, we’ll find every last person who was even somewhat related to this and let them wish for death.”  
“I thought you promised your new friend that you would arrest him?” Jason raised an eyebrow.   
Shit. He forgot about Jon. He was probably really worried right now, he’d have to contact him.   
“My new friend doesn’t have to know everything,” Damian growled, smiling darkly.   
“So we’re in agreement?”   
“They don’t make it into custody.”


	20. Gabriel (Alex Benjamin)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The batboys reunited!!! Also, where is Bruce???

Dick was excited. He got cleared for being able to move around the hospital now. His stitches weren’t in danger of opening and spilling his blood everywhere, ruining their precious white tile floors.   
“You ready Dickie?” Jason asked, standing in the doorway.   
“Are you kidding? I’ve been wanting to get out of this bed since I got in here,” Dick slowly swung his legs over the bed, making sure his right arm cast didn’t hit the edge of the bed.   
Dick took a few shaky steps towards the door, making sure he was steady enough to not immediately collapse which wouldn’t be very nice for anybody. Sure he wouldn’t fall, he made the short trip down the hall to see his brother.   
“Is he awake?” Dick said, hesitating at the door. He didn’t want to disturb Tim’s sleep, lord knows he doesn’t get enough of it.   
“For the past 36 hours,” Jason grumbled. “I’m not making him sleep though. Who knows what he’s seeing.”   
“Yeah, I’m not going to force him. Not until I have shrinks yelling at me to put him to sleep,” Dick opened the door and stepped in, immediately alerted to the sound of typing. ‘Does he ever take a break’ Dick thought, looking over his brother.   
Honestly, he looked better than Dick was expecting. His leg cast was drawn on by Damian, who was sleeping in the chair next to the bed, and he had patches over his stitches. His skin was still deathly pale, and his hands were slightly shaky, but he looked like any kid would after tripping and breaking a leg.   
“Hey, Tim,” Dick stopped at the foot of the bed and smiled. The typing paused. Tim looked up from his computer, a smile spreading on his face.   
“Dick,” he whispered, voice hoarse. His intelligent eyes took in every small detail. Tim frowned as he saw the casts and the bandages.   
“Hey, I’m okay Timmy,” Dick quickly cut off Tim’s inevitable thought process. “Just a stupid driving accident.”   
Dick could see in Tim’s eyes that he didn’t believe him, but Tim nodded anyway.   
“Are you feeling okay?” Dick sat on the other chair, legs tired from little use from the past week. “You must be since you’re working.”   
Tim shrugged. “I’m feeling better. I’m going to go home Saturday. I texted Dad to make sure he was aware that I fell in a covered up well and will be in a hospital till Saturday. He still hasn’t texted back,” Tim rubbed the side of his neck, leaving an angry red mark in its place. “This is confusing. I don’t like things that are confusing, Dick. That’s why I stick to computers.”  
Dick went to plead the case of humans, being one himself, when he interrupted by a small knock on the door. Jason looked through the window. He smiled slightly then opened the door.   
“Conner, so glad you could make it!” Tim’s face shot toward the door, eyes wide and cheeks pink.   
Conner entered the room, holding a coffee cup in his hands. He stood there awkwardly as all but one of the brothers stared at him.   
“Jason said you were in the hospital, so I wanted to make sure you were okay,” Conner shifted from foot to foot. “He also said you’d be dying for some coffee.”  
Tim shot a short glare at Jason before going back to looking like a gay caught in the headlight.   
“You brought coffee too!” Jason’s smile widened. “You know coffee is one of the three c’s to Tim’s heart.”   
“Three c’s?” Conner asked.   
Dick sent a pitying look to Tim. What Jason was about to say next was going to absolutely WRECK his disaster gay of a brother.   
“Yeah, computers, coffee and co-”  
“Cookies!” Tim shrieked, face a bright cherry red, eyes wide and panicked. He cleared his throat and regained control over his face. “I like cookies.”   
Dick stifled the urge to laugh.   
Conner blinked. “Uh, cool.” He looked at the coffee and set it on the side table next to the bed. “Um, I think I’m going to go.”   
Conner sheepishly waved his goodbye and made a hasty retreat.   
Tim groaned loudly, face returning to it’s bright shade of red. Dick leaned against the bed, shoulders shaking with his laughter.   
“You’re horrible Jason,” Tim grumbled, rubbing his neck.   
Dick struggled to pull himself together. His ribs were hurting and tears were leaking out of the corner of his eyes.   
“Stop laughing, dick, you’re just encouraging him,” Tim whined. “That was mortifying! You guys are horrible.”  
“Oh, you have no idea Timmy,” Jason smiled.   
Tim winced, then tried to cover it up. That got Dick to stop laughing.   
“You okay Tim?” Jason frowned, all sense of playfulness gone.   
“Uh, yeah,” Tim stretched a hesitant smile on his face. “Yeah I’m good.”   
The two just stared at him, wanting him to talk. Tim bit his lip and rubbed his neck again. He looked down and whispered something.   
“What was that?” Dick tapped his ear and leaned forward. Tim took a deep breath.   
“Please don’t call me ‘Timmy’ anymore. He… that’s what he called me,” Tim seemed to sink into himself, staring at the blankets.   
“Hey,” Dick reached over and lightly touched Tim’s trembling hands. “That’s okay. We won’t call you that anymore. Whatever you need.”   
Jason nodded, an angry fire dancing in his eyes. “Yeah man, whatever makes you less unstable.”   
Dick shot him a tiny glare, but realised this was Jason trying to be comforting.   
“Thanks.” 

He was in a dark room, about 25 square feet, with a screen covering the wall in front of him. His hands were handcuffed to the steel chair with his arms tied tight. His ankles were tied to the legs of the chair and were bleeding from him rubbing against the ropes often. His head was fuzzy from the sedatives they gave him when he got too active. So far they hadn’t done anything to him, just left him waiting. He didn’t know how long he’d been in captivity, the last thing he remembered was going over the case in his warm bed. He hoped his boys were safe. He had been trying to keep them out of this so they wouldn’t get hurt.   
The sound of a squeaky door met his ears and brief light entered the small room.   
“Oh my oh my oh my, what do we have here?” a crazed voice said. “Did my birthday come early? Oh you guys, you spoil me.”   
He waited, still, silent. He ran the odds in his head, trying to figure out what this mad man had planned for him.   
“Hmm, not much of a talker are you?” the man sounded disappointed. A risky thing to do with your kidnapper. “That’s fine, I can do the talking for the both of us.”   
The screen flickered.   
“Now, you may be wondering why you’re here,” the man stayed behind him, but he could hear the footsteps go back and forth from pacing. “The truth is, I only just figured out why myself,” The madman giggled. “But then I remembered something from a long, long, short time ago. A wackjob once told me, all it takes is one bad day to reduce the sanest person alive to lunacy. That’s how far the world is from where I am. Just one bad day.” Another laugh. The laugh sent chills down his spine and he knew he would never forget it. “So I thought, well, why don’t I gift the person who gave me a bad day, one of their own, and wouldn’t I know it, this person had little mini hims just running around the city trying to find the person who killed their friends.” Cold fabric landed on his head as the madman leaned against him. “So, I did what any insane genius does and I staged a little kidnapping to get one of them in my clutches. If one bad day turned me into me, what would a week do?”   
The screen flickered to show a three, two, one countdown. The black and white film flickered as the camera was aimed at a concrete floor. The screen flickered again and showed a small boy looking into the camera with terrified, but defiant eyes.   
“Oh Timmy, he was my favorite. Filled with so much potential with that big brain of his. They say the bigger the brain, the weaker the sanity. Sadly, the poor boy couldn’t realise I didn’t really need the information I asked from him,” The madman grabbed his shoulders and leaned over his shoulder. He cringed at the feeling of hot breath blow over his skin. “I just wanted to make him squeal.” The madman slipped back with a flash of green with that unnerving laugh. “Oh look, my favorite part.”   
Tim shook his head and spit at whoever was behind the camera. He started screaming.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!!!! Please comment!!!!


	21. Numb (Dotan)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tim goes to see what his father texted him about.

Saturday had finally come. Tim could finally leave that sterile and dead hospital and go see what his Dad found so important that he felt the need to text him.   
“You sure you don’t need me Tim?” Jason asked from the driver's seat.   
“Um, maybe to walk in and um,” Tim fidgeted, not willing to let Jason know he was scared to see his father. It wasn’t like he had given Tim any reason to trust him that much. “Yeah, maybe stay with me for a bit. If you don’t mind.”   
Jason just nodded as he pulled up in front of Drake Manor. Tim stared at the dark windows and the silent lawn. He could feel anxiety start to close off his throat as he took a shaky breath.   
“You ready Tim?” Jason said softly. Tim didn’t have to look back to know Jason was giving him a pitying look.   
“I’m fine Jason. Let’s just get this over with,” Tim took a deep breath and opened the door. Jason was quick to get to his side of the car as Tim fought with his crutches to get them under his arms correctly. He may have been stalling, just a little bit.   
As the two of them made their way up the windy path to the house, Tim thought about everything that has happened in that house. Each step brought up a new memory, none of them really good. A lot of them being young Tim wandering an empty house, wondering how long his parents would be gone this time. Or young Tim nursing wounds that weren’t his fault. Then of a ten year old Tim getting the call that his parents were kidnapped and his mother didn’t make it. Then the years it took his dad to even to even talk again. His father finding another love and going back to his old habits of leaving Tim in second. No, Drake manor wasn’t a place that Tim found real homey, but his Dad wanted him to be here so here he was.   
Tim stopped in front of his house and reached with a shaky hand to the cold golden doorknob. He hesitated. He just didn’t know what was going to happen when he opened the door. Last time he didn’t know what the outcome of something his family had ended up in the hospital. Dick was only just getting checked out, he didn’t want something matching that happening here.   
“Tim?” Jason’s voice was worried, Tim could hear it. He also didn’t like it. They shouldn’t have to worry about him all the time. With renewed determination, Tim grabbed the handle and went to turn it.   
The door swung open on its own.   
Jason and Tim shared a worried look. Jason motioned for Tim to stay back and walked into the house first. The darkness swallowed him leaving Tim alone on the front steps.   
He wasn’t going to stand here while Jason waltzed into his house with no back up. Besides, they were probably just being paranoid. Who would try to get into Drake Manor? His Dad probably just forgot to lock up before he left to go somewhere with Janet.   
Tim ignored the fact that he saw his Dad’s car in the driveway as he had walked up.   
Making up his mind, Tim entered the dark house. 

It was the same as when he was a child. Disturbingly clean, classic mansion decor, a grand entrance everything. It normally felt like a dollhouse but now it seemed void of any and all life. It left Tim feeling unwelcome in his own home.   
“Dad?” He called, his voice echoing on the blank walls.   
He gave a quick look through the kitchen and living room, finding no one there. Nothing was out of place. There weren’t any signs of anyone being here for the past month and a thick layer of dust coated the furniture.   
He felt his breath catch from fear. ‘Unacceptable,’ he thought. ‘You need to focus Tim.’ He took a deep breath, grabbed all his annoying feelings and shoved them in a very dark corner to collect dust. Now was the time to be level-headed. Not an emotional thing. Like his mother always said, emotions are used as a weapon to get what you want, not something to block you from your intended goal.   
With that in mind, Tim eyed the stairs to the second floor. What were the odds that his father was up there?   
Jason appeared at the top of the stairs.   
“Anything?” Tim asked, voice a forced neutral.   
Jason shook his head.   
Tim nodded and headed to the back of the house, the only place they haven’t checked.   
“Dad? This isn’t fun-” Tim stopped himself before he could finish the sentence. Just another thing the madman ruined for him.   
Tim shuddered at the mere thought of him and reached for the light. He stopped as the smell hit his nose. The smell of rotting flesh.   
Panicked, Tim quickly flicked on the light. The world seemed to still as a void in his mind sucked in and destroyed his spinning thoughts.   
Red. That’s all he could see. Red staining the white carpet and pooling out of a middle aged caucasian with a boomerang sticking out of his chest. The smell told him he had been dead for about 24 hours.   
WE HAVE A SURPRISE FOR YOU ON FRIDAY. That’s what his Dad had texted.   
Jason cursed next to him. “I’m so sorry Tim,” He whispered.   
All it takes is one bad day. That psycho had said.   
Tim stared at the bloody body. Tim cracked a smile. ‘Of course. Of fucking course this would happen’ Tim thought. The whole thing seemed… funny.  
“Tim?” Jason was saying, but Tim couldn’t hear him. He was hearing laughter again.   
Tim let out a small giggle, eyes still locked on the body. ‘He really does have a habit of leaving me.’ This was just too funny. Tim sunk to his knees, crutches falling to the floor with a clatter, as he laughed at the bloody scene before him. He was distantly aware of Jason shouting his name, of hot tears falling down his face, of strong hands shaking his shoulders.   
“Tim!” Jason shouted, only there was no Tim. Tim was as dead as the body on the floor. 

He was still in the dark room when the madman came into the room again, whistling a familiar melody.   
He tensed. Last time this wacko entered he had to watch his son in pain for hours. He was not looking for this visit. Maybe this time the madman would decide to hurt him instead of one of his kids.   
“How are you doing? Crazy yet? No?” the madman clicked his tongue in disappointment. “I have a treat that might help with that.”   
The screen flickered to the countdown from before.   
“Have you heard of Jack Drake?” a flash of a white gloved hand caught his eyes. “I assume you have, you have custody over his son after all.”  
The video started to show two teens enter a dark house. One in crutches and the other with a white hair stripe. Jason went upstairs as Tim hobbled through the first two rooms.   
“Well, I used him to leave a little surprise for Timmy. I hope he likes my gift.”  
The camera changed to a black screen. There was movement. The light flipped on showing Tim standing in the hallway facing a brutal murder scene. He was just standing there. Jason came in and laid a hand on Tim’s shoulders. Jason was saying something without sound. He sighed in relief when he realised there was no sound to this one.   
Tim’s face stretched into a shaky smile as the light died in his eyes. He watched in horror as Tim started laughing brokenly as Jason ineffectually tried to bring his brother back.   
“Stop it,” He whispered. Speaking for the first time in days.   
“Why? It’s obvious your son likes his gift,” the madman started laughing as he watched his son break and crumble away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys thanks for reading and please please PLEASE give me comments. They give me life.


	22. Mansion (NF)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jason worried

Jason was terrified. He shouldn’t be though, this was his brother.   
“Babs, come quick,” He said on his phone, needing her expertise. She was known for helping all the victimized kids at the GCPD so she should be able to help with this. He hoped his shaky voice told her how serious the situation was. “It’s Tim. I think he’s broken. We’re at Drake Manor. Please, I don’t know what to do.”  
He could still hear Tim laugh-sobbing in the other room. He had managed to drag Tim into the kitchen so he could stop looking at the bloody corpse. It didn’t help but Jason didn’t really know what to do.   
“Is this what Bruce felt like when I came back?” Jason thought out loud, stopping in his worried pacing. That was a terrifying thought and Jason gained some respect for the moody man.  
There was a crash from the kitchen, snapping Jason out of his thoughts.   
Jason rushed into the kitchen to find Tim pulling a gleaming knife out of a drawer and held it high.   
“Tim no!” Jason launched himself at Tim as he brought the knife down. Jason crashed into Tim, sending both toppling to the floor. The knife fell to the floor with a clatter and Tim silenced. Jason quickly moved off him to check on him.   
Tim’s eyes opened and a wide grin split his face open as the laughter continued. Tim moved and started going to the knife.   
“Timothy Drake NO!” Jason scrambled after the knife, managing to snatch it before him.   
Tim tackled Jason, reaching for the knife.   
“Tim WHAT THE HELL!” Jason avoided the grabby hands and struggled to push the light body off him.   
Tim was mouthing something, but no sound was coming out.   
“Tim! Just chill till Babs gets here!” Jason pushed himself to his feet and put the table between him and his psychotic baby brother.   
Tim chased after him, screeching. They started running around the table, like kids playing chase on cartoons. Only this wasn’t a cartoon and they definitely weren’t playing.   
Tim shoved into the table and pulled it back quick. Jason didn’t understand why he would have done that, until he was crashing into the kitchen’s tiled floor. He had tripped over the moved chair.   
Even while suffering a mental breakdown, this kid was smart.   
Tim jumped on top of his back, sending Jason’s face crashing against the floor with a crack. Tears filled his eyes as blood poured out of his bloodied nose.   
Ignoring the buzzing pain, Jason hucked the knife as far as he could across the room. He waited till Tim chased after it, grabbed Tim’s legs, and sent his brother crashing to the ground. Jason crawled his way up till he had a firm grasp of his brother. He sat up and held Tim against his chest as Tim screeched and squirmed. His screeching turned back into that horrible laugh-sob mix as Tim wrapped his arms over Jason’s.   
Jason didn’t know how long they sat like that, Tim freaking out and Jason shushing him, but he was thankful when Barabara arrived.   
She didn’t even knock. Even if she did it was doubtful that Jason would’ve heard her.   
“Oh my god Jason, what happened?” Barbara gasped, appearing in the doorway.   
Jason nodded towards the back of the house. She hesitated, looking at Tim with pity and pain in her eyes, then headed to the back room. Moments later she reentered with a haunted look in her eyes. Guess this was her first body.   
She slowly made her way towards Tim.   
When Tim saw her he screamed and tried to move farther into Jason.   
“Tim! Tim it’s okay! It’s just Babs! I promise!” Jason didn’t know what Tim was seeing, but it must’ve been bad to make him react that way to Babs. “She’s not gonna hurt you, I promise. I promise Tim. It’s okay.”   
Tim stilled, shifting into outright sobbing.   
Barbara knelt down to his level and held out her arms with sadness in her eyes. Jason hesitantly let go of Tim.   
Tim looked back at Jason, touched Jason’s throbbing nose, and bent over wailing, hands pulling at his shirt and throat.   
Barbara slowly crawled closer and wrapped her arms around the shaking boy, letting his tears soak into her purple shirt. She rubbed his back and shushed him, eyes starting to tear up.   
Jason felt his own sadness building up in his chest. How could something like this have gotten so far out of hand.   
Tim started to quiet. He hiccuped, then tilted his head to whisper something to Barbara. Her eyes widened and tears slipped out of her eyes. She hugged him harder.   
“Oh, Tim. No, no we don’t need to do that. You’re going to be okay you hear me? It’s going to be okay,” She said with barely contained sobs.   
Jason looked at her quizickly. She shook her head. Later. She would fill him in on what Tim said later.   
Tim’s shaky breathing evened out and soft snores came from the boy.   
Barbara gave him one last squeeze before she handed him off to Jason. Jason lifted him, surprising himself with how little Tim weighed. The kid really needed to eat more, but if it was a struggle to get him to eat before… Jason shook the thoughts away and walked to the living room to put the sleeping boy on the couch. At least this room didn’t have any knives.   
Jason stared at Tim. Everytime he closed his eyes he could see that insane grin, hear that broken laughter.  
Barbara did knock this time. Jason startled at the sound and turned to face her sorrowful expression. 

“You okay?” She whispered.   
The two of them were sitting across from each other, trying to process the events of the past hour.   
“Yeah, maybe, I don’t know,” Jason admitted. He honestly didn’t know. He was just emotionally blank. “I mean, what are you supposed to be feeling when your brother has a mental breakdown the size of the twin towers collapse and tries to gut himself with a knife?”   
Barbara winced. “About that,” she started, looking down at the table and fiddling with her fingers. “You wanted to know what he told me? He told me ‘kill me, kill me please’,” Barbara choked back a sob. “He sounded so broken when he said it.”   
Great, now he had to use his non existent comfort skills on another person. How was he going to screw this one up?   
Thankfully he got a call before he did something to stupid.   
Jason looked down at it and winced himself. Dick was calling. There was no way he was going to stay chill about this.   
Jason stepped out the front door so the call wouldn’t wake Tim and answered.   
“Jason, I haven’t heard from you in an hour,” Dick’s worried voice said as soon as Jason put the phone to his ear. “Are you guys okay?”   
“Well, that’s a bit complicated,” Jason looked back at the house. “We’re okay physically but… Tim’s mind is shattered.”   
“What?! What happened!” Dick screeched. Jason hissed and pushed the phone away from his ear.   
“Tim’s Dad had a surprise for him alright,” Jason said. “He’s dead.”   
“Oh shit,” Dick whispered. “Poor Tim.”   
“Yeah, you might want to get over here. Tim wasn’t exactly mentally sound five minutes ago and we just got him to go to sleep. I have Babs with me but he absolutely lost his shit when he saw her so maybe you’d do better.”  
“Okay, I’ll be there. I’m dropping Damian off at the Kents right now. He doesn’t need to see this,” Dick whispered the last bit.   
“He’s not going to like that,” Jason warned.   
Dick sighed from the other end of the line. “I know but, I don’t want him to see this.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don’t worry you guys timmy’s going to be okay. This is what I think what would’ve happened if Tim had snapped without the influence of Joker right after. Again, I love your guys questions or comments so keep them coming!!! Love you guys!!!!


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